We did it, Mister Frodo. We made it to Mordor.
View attachment 66762
NM Act V has been cleared at players 7! ... So, the full clear is still on entering Hell!
First, a bit of a brag. I made it all the way through NM, doing full clears, at players 7, with decent mf (low 200's), and managed not to find a single exceptional unique weapon that can be wielded one-handed. All the more impressive I suppose, as I was playing a Barbarian, using Item Find on every corpse. Also as a Barb, two-handed swords were therefore an additional option. Still, I managed not to find a single one. Not one
.
Oh well. So clearly some improvisation was needed. I started NM Act V with 20 points in Concentrate and Battle Orders, nine points in Find Item, and one point in all other Warcries except Grim Ward. I had a good number of skill points saved and decided to put them into War Cry. One point War Cry had been working pretty well but I decided a longer stun length would worthwhile. Level 1 War Cry has a stun length of 1 second. Level 20 War Cry has a stun length of 4.8 seconds. The 4.8 second stun length was really nice ... but the added mana cost was not. So more changes were needed. I tried a Spirit Sword, and that fixed the mana problem, but I didn't like how it made the character play. I've been using Concentrate and The General's Tan Do Li Ga Flail to slow enemies since Act V ... going to being a less involved caster wasn't fun. So I brought back the The General's Tan Do Li Ga Flail, and swapped out my 17 mf Nagelring for a magic ring with 118 mana and 16 life, and that did the trick! I could spam War Cry on most enemies and use the The General's Tan Do Li Ga to slow champions and uniques.
And so it went. Lots of stunning, and then slowing for foes that could not be stunned. Merc kills everything. It's been a long time since I messed around with War Cry, so I started off a bit rusty. The problem I remembered with Singers was: what to do with monsters that are out of range? Oh yeah. Taunt. The description for Taunt is: 'causes a monster to attack'. This doesn't sound helpful ... but I seemed to remember that it was ... so I gave it a go ... What the description for Taunt should be is: 'causes a monster to walk up to you'. Cool! This totally fixes all my War Cry problems. Archers, spell casters, and summoners, were all drawn into my stun field:
View attachment 66764
Come little healers, I'll be thy friend.
And so, with a War Cry with a 4.8 second stun duration ... and Taunt to draw the flies to my spider web ... progress was pretty smooth. Until, the Ancients Way. That area had the Carver Shaman that shoot Glacial Spikes. Doesn't seem like it'd be a problem, but oh it was ... They seemed to come in groups of four, and if you were at the right passageway junction, you could end up with eight ... or twelve ... or sixteen ... and of course, all their minions. Still, I can stun them and dispose of corpses via Item Find ... but it was easier said than done. I was busy keeping everything stunned so it was hard to beat all those Shaman to a corpse. I could Taunt the Shaman to me and stun them ... but they were operating off the screen ... often around corners ... and sometimes through walls
. Oh, and in NM the Ancients Way is HUGE. I got it cleared, but what an annoying mess full of non-stop setbacks.
At least the Ancients were easy. I went through them like a knife through warm butter. Korlic was PI:
View attachment 66765
But my one point Berserk, and newly upgraded The General's Tan Do Li Ga
Knout was good enough to handle him.
Then things got messy again. The Worldstone Keep Level 1 had Vile Witches:
View attachment 66766
The worst kind of foe. They spread out, attack at range, and cast Amplify Damage. A couple unique packs met at once nearly ended my journey ... let's hear it for Fat Purples and Taunt.
WSK2 ... no problems ...
WSK3 ... PROBLEMS:
View attachment 66767
Like
@skoolbus, I was met at the stairs by two packs of unique Frenzytaurs. As you can see, one of them was cursed
. War Cry kept the 'little' guys stunned. The General's Tan Do Li Ga slowed the uniques so the merc didn't get overwhelmed. We got through them without serious incident ... but what a welcome party!
The Throne of Destruction also had a welcome party:
View attachment 66768
And look, Oblivion Knights too
:
View attachment 66769
Oblivion Knights are immune to Taunt
. Throw in the chance that Lower Resistance could appear at any moment and you've got yourself a mess! But it wasn't our time to die ...
Next came the waves. We met the first wave at the base of Baal's throne. Bad idea ... Decrepify brought the merc to all but a stand still. We finished off the first wave and then moved out of Baal's Decrepify range. Future waves were drawn out with Taunt. That worked well until the Plucked Chickens. They didn't need to be Taunted and came charging! Fine. You want to go? Let's go! Right out of the throne room main chamber we went ... to a side chamber ... and then teleported back to the now empty main chamber. As always, Baal was most alarmed by this trick and fled. We then went out and picked the Plucked Chickens off one by one ... which with stun and slow, was no big deal at all.
Baal, was also no big deal. We teleported on top of him and the fight never moved. The General's Tan Do Li Ga brought him to a stand still, and the merc, and the Barb's switch Crushflange, then marched right through his hit points.
But wait! NM's not done yet. Cows ... we still have to do The Secret Cow Level. This is where things got really tedious. We entered at players 7, and right away ran into a problem:
View attachment 66770
Stone Skin
and a Holy Freeze aura
. Great. The merc has CBF, but Holy Freeze doesn't care. It all but brought the merc to a stop. <
Sigh.> Eventually we poked our way through that unique but it did not get better. At players 7 those cows just had too many hit points. I switched to players 5, but not before I'd traveled enough of the interior to get most of the cows set to P7. So it was a long slog through the area ... A very long slog. Still, War Cry kept things pretty safe ... even with lots of foes around:
View attachment 66771
Don't try this with ... um, ... probably any other build ...
After much hacking and whacking, and nerve rattling scenes like the one above, we finally poked our way through The Secret Cow Level!
I had been hoping for a nice rune ... or maybe a nifty socketable ... but all that higher players setting struggle was for not!
At least I got something nice in NM Act V ...
Here's the complete list of set/uniques found in NM Act V:
With 179 mf (+23 mf if the merc kills ... which was pretty much always).
Cathan's Seal, Ring (Bloody Foothills)
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest, Death Mask (Bloody Foothills) <-- Hello
.
Cathan's Seal, Ring (Bloody Foothills) <-- Yes, again.
Sazabi's Mental Sheath, Basinet (Frigid Highlands)
Berserker's Headgear, Helm (Frigid Highlands)
Vidala's Barb, Long Battle Bow (Frigid Highlands)
The Mahim-Oak Curio, Amulet (Arreat Plateau)
Goblin Toe, Light Plated Boots (Crystalline Passage) <-- Great! With a different setup ...
Cathan's Seal, Ring (Frozen River)
Manald Heal, Ring (Frozen River)
Iratha's Coil, Crown (Crystalline Passage)
Lance of Yaggai, Spetum (Glacial Trail)
Hsarus' Iron Heel, Chain Boots (Drifter Cavern)
Silks of the Victor, Ancient Armor (Halls of Anguish)
Sigon's Sabot, Greaves (Infernal Pit)
Sigon's Gage, Gauntlets (Frozen Tundra)
Hwanin's Justice, Bill (Frozen Tundra)
Sigon's Wrap, Plated Belt (The Ancients' Way)
Sander's Superstition, Bone Wand (The Ancients' Way)
Cleglaw's Tooth, Long Sword (The Ancients' Way)
Cleglaw's Tooth, Long Sword (The Ancients' Way) <-- Yes, another.
Tancred's Crowbill, Military Pick (The Worldstone Keep Level 1)
Steelclash, Kite Shield (The Worldstone Keep Level 2)
Nagelring, Ring (The Worldstone Keep Level 3) <-- 19 mf ...
Sander's Taboo, Heavy Gloves (The Worldstone Keep Level 3)
Wizendraw, Long Battle Bow (Throne of Destruction)
The Jade Tan Do, Kris (The Secret Cow Level)
Bladebuckle, Plated Belt (The Cow King)
Cleglaw's Pincers, Chain Gloves (The Cow King)
Culwen's Point, War Sword (The Secret Cow Level)
Well, I can't say I didn't find anything. And yes, one of those things was really great!
View attachment 66772
Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Death Mask
Defense: 115
Durability: 11 of 20
Required Strength: 55
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0x75c8d299
+60 to Life
+30 to Mana
+45 Defense
All Resistances +15
10% Life stolen per hit
10% Mana stolen per hit
Found via Item Find! It'd be great on the Barb, but since the merc is doing all the killing, he gets first dibs. It replaced a rare circlet with 3% life leech and All Resistances +17 ... and some trash mods. Couple the Tal's mask with Duriel's Shell (also found via Item Find
) and the merc is ready for Hell! The Barb, not so much ...
Code:
SP Forum Name Characters Level Furthest WP Points
-- ----------------- ---------------- ------ ---------------------- -------
Y Hanshotfirst Sorc/Sin 88/87 Guardian x2 200
N PhineasB Necro/Druid 83/83 Guardian x2 200
N Booble Sorc/Druid 74/70 Matriarch / Deeds 174
Y skoolbus Druid/Sorc 74/74 (H) Blood Moor 124
Y Hanshotfirst Barb/Necro* 74/56* (H) Rogue Encampment 100
N Crudesash68 Zon/Paladin 46/50 (N) Lut Gholein 67
Y Pb_pal Sorc/Zon 45/44 (N) Rogue Encampment 60
Y Gynli Zon/Necro 32/48 (N) Rogue Encampment 51
N Swamigoon Sin/Druid 45/33 WSK2 41
N DariusTriplet Sorc/Zon 31/24 River of Flame 32
Y Maltatai Druid/Druid 24/24 Far Oasis 14
Y Vildecor Zon/Sorc 21/20 Lut Gholein 12
N Arjan Druid/Necro 20/18 Lut Gholein 11
N CaseyJones Sorc/Druid 15/23 Lut Gholein 9
N Zedwardson Sorc/Necro 13/17 Catacombs 9
N Zedwardson Druid/Paladin 3/18 Lut Gholein 7
Y b1ur Paladin/Druid 20/1 Lut Gholein 6
Up next: I suppose I'd better do some gear rearranging before starting Hell. As is, my resistances in Hell are right around 30 ... that doesn't seem like a good idea. I really would have loved to have found a Vipermagi, or a Lum Rune (Smoke), or another Duriel's, or a Goldskin ... heck, starting NM Act IV I started looking for a four socketed armor I could stuff runes into for resistances ... I didn't find any of them. So, not quite sure what options that leaves me ... I've got my NM socket quest and a whole heck of a lot of unused stat points:
View attachment 66773
Remember, no respecs in 1.11b.
I'm sure I'll figure something out ...