I thought about leveling a bit before Hell but Blue is so powerful that in the end I really didn't see the need. One final respec and some charm juggling to get him to his final state:
Nice. /p5 for now as I don't want to be waiting too long for the merc to kill any unbreakable CIs, and Blue is a touch fragile so I feel it's a good balance. So far so good as he easily cleared the
Den,
Blood Raven, and
Tristram before encountering his first
PICI boss he had to park. He quickly went on and killed the Countess, and then found
Pluckeye for Grail-8, as well as my 2nd to last TC3 that I need (Knell Sriker remains). Things are safe enough right now but LE and FE monsters are starting to hurt, so he socketed his Nightwings with a Ral, popped an Ort in his armour, and a PDiamond in his shield.
Much better (well, aside from Cold and Poison)! Quickly through now to the Malus, and then
Andariel with no trouble at level 75.
Act 2 was extremely uneventful, the duo just steamrolled their way through with the merc taking CIs and Blue handling any PIs such as the ghosts. The Staff and Amulet were retrieved without incident, and the oversized insect was slain
handily as well. More of the same in Act 3 through the Spider Jungle, but they got slowed down a bit in the Flayer Jungle due to all the CI flayers. The merc once again came to the rescue, and it was through to the
Council before the duo just basically waltzed right up to
Mephisto and killed him. Man, this guy is strong!
Fortunate monster rolls (no CI Spawners!) meant Blue absolutely tore through Act 4, reaching the Hellforge (
Io) and the CS in record time. The CS itself was of course another issue since OKs are CI, and just a pain in general. Slow but sure the duo pushed through, cleared the Seals and then fought Diablo.
He basically only used the hose, so Blue and his merc just stood there and pummelled him. Easy enough.
Act 5 started out in the same vein, and other than having to dance around archers , progress is smooth. The power is still very real with Blue, so Shenk died quickly,
Anya was rescued (without any CI problems down there, somehow!), and
Nihl was (a little bit more carefully) disposed of. This is where things ground to a halt.
The Ancients were taken on /p1 for simplicity's sake. Lots and lots of running around and dodging, Blue used all his health potions before he had a chance to properly engage the trio.
Madawc was separated first, and fell without too much hassle. Blue dodged Leap attacks while the merc whittled a CI
Korlic, and
Talic was easy enough after that (Blue just stayed out of the way). Back up to /p5 on to the WSK.
For once, the WSK proved to be the actual toughest area of the game. Level 1 was absolutely filled with CI, amp-casting Witches as well as CI Invaders so it was slow and treacherous going.
WSK2 was tricky as well, but for different reasons. Poison mages were a real nuisance, since with -26 PR the drained Blue's health bulb FAST. Normally that would be fine, but bats and Frenzied Ice Spawn were the other two rolls, and they are very quick. That can make things tricky when your health is regularly plummeting below half. They were easy enough to kill, but it felt like Blue could die at any moment. WSK was the opposite, and over in a flash.
Then, the Throne. Gloams, CI Oblivion Kinghts, and Frenzytaurs...great. COnfuse from the merc's Delerium played a huge role, and eventually it was cleared. After that, the first 4 waves basically melted. Lister's pack was Extra Fast and we got pushed right back out of the main chamber. Blue popped a TP and ran back from the WP to separate the pack. Oddly enough, Lister was the
only one who chased us (and not CI!) so we got rid of him first and then dealt with the rest of the pack.
Baal was a
dream on /p3. Holy Freeze kept him slowed enough to keep his attacks inert, so it was only a matter of time until Blue became Patriarch at level 84.
All in all a super fun character, and a really fast trip (at least for me) through all 3 difficulties.
Blue the Holy Freeze Paladin, lvl 84 - Patriarch
Pat thread with some thoughts on the character is
posted here.