Norcim105 said:Bone Wall was the hero while clearing the Bloody Foothills. Bones would cast a wall between him and the burning archers and then he could cast spears without taking any damage. I would then cast another one a bit further into the screen and advance behind it. It kind of felt like Bones was doing a tank push, for anyone who is familiar with Star Craft 2. The open areas of Act 5 are some of my favorites because in NM the monster draws are pretty easy and you can rack up experience real quick.
Slingers in the Frigid Highlands made life interesting with their javelins being able to pierce walls/prisons. Bone Armor earned its money during this area. Ran into a double boss pack of unravelers in the Pit of Archeron. Extra Fast Multishot and Manaburn Multishot. Not any trouble, but I had forgotten they could spawn as guest monsters. D2 has a way of finding the enemies you hate the most and making sure you get to face lots of them…There were no skellies with them so they just got prisoned and speared. Bones had his very first full juvie drop from this pack.
Bones actually had his first Io drop in the Frigid Highlands. He is very thankful we were able to cube one from Dols early, as this would have been a long time to wait for the White wand.
I muled in a special piece of gear I’ve had in mind before entering the Crystalline Passage for the underground tunnels of Act 5, the always handy Ring of Telekinesis. Bones was not planning on having any angry packs spawn on his fragile head after opening an evil urn. Strategy was to place a few walls between the urn and Bones, then use TK to pop it. Spawned monsters would immediately get prisoned. This strategy worked like a charm! Bones was prepared for the Blood Mana curse this time, and usually resorted to hanging out behind his walls watching Kyoko work while it wore off. I was usually carrying an extra super healer in the pack for these situations, so I would keep firing away and down the super healer with ~60% life left. I could usually finish clearing the room and end up with full health after.
Frozen River had ghosts, bone mages, and sirens, which made for a pretty relaxed clear. Found a 3 socket Gothic Bow in the Glacier Trail, so Kyoko got an improved Edge bow. I can’t remember exactly but I made a new helmet for Kyoko in either late Act 4 or early act 5 when I found a 3 socket helm and stuffed it with the best +min and max damage jewels I had.
Bones cleared up to the Ancients Way, then came back to do Pindle and Nilly when he found the Ancients Way WP almost as soon as entering that area. Temple Guards, Returned, and Prowling Dead in the Halls of Anguish. Nightlords, Razerspine, and Infidels in the Halls of Pain. Not super dangerous but it did keep Bones on his toes because the Nightlords get frenzied up real fast and the Infidels are just fast in general. Bones went through almost all the charges on his TP staff down here to escape his own prisons. It was still safer to drop a prison as soon as I saw these guys coming, which because of the narrow hallways and the darkness down here usually ended up with one of them in the prison with Bones. A quick TP out, another prison to hold everything down and then spear away.
Prowling Dead, Hell Temptress, and Returned Archers in the Halls of Vaught. Bones used CE on all of the corpses around Nilly, then put a bunch of prisons up and started spearing. Nilly tele’d around a bit but he stayed away from Bones. He went down quickly and quietly. Bones didn’t get any good drops down here, but he did see 4 different white/grey shakos…
Bones had a great drop for pretty much every tourney but this one in the Ancients Way. Rolled 39% MF.
Also had a Mal rune drop in the Icy Cellar from a Champ pack of Frozen Creepers. Not really sure what can be done with a Mal in this tourney.
Ancients spawned Cursed (Leaper), Extra Fast (Thrower), and Teleport (Whirler). Bones put a bunch of walls down to get in the way before hitting the alter and running cowardly away, and the end result was only the leaper coming after us at first. I put him in prison and he just stood there for a while not doing anything while Bones and Kyoko went to town on him. He finally decided with ½ life left to start leaping again. Bones just kited back and forth spamming as many Bone Spirits as he could before he leaped again, and then when he landed they would all hit him! The thrower was next, and he was super easy once he got prisoned. The whirler was a bit more interesting because prisons and walls don’t stop him. I was able to get Kyoko prisoned in with him at one point so he stopped whirling for a while and just attacked her. I spammed Spirit at him as well because it was difficult to get Spears to hit mid whirl unless he is whirling directly at Bones, which we were determined not to have happen. Spirits made quick work of him. Finally tally was 1 super healer and 3 super mana pots used!
Bones hit 400 base energy with the stat points from hitting level 74 in the WSK3.
Throne had Burning Souls, Serpent Magus, and Horadrim Ancients. Bones was sucking down healing pots for this clear with all the piercing damage flying around and Bone Armor being useless against it. CE was used on corpses so none of the Souls could be resurrected. The waves were super easy. Bone Prison keep everything trapped, so Bones and Kyoko could fire away without any issues. Bones had to run around a bit during Wave 3 to dodge the hydra bolts, but the other 4 waves didn’t cost Bones a single point of life. Lister is looking very sad all alone by himself here:
Baal went crazy right away with Blood Mana and Festering Appendages, so the beginning of the fight was really chaotic as Bones tried to get away from the Appendages without spearing them. Bones was finally able to duck into a corner and wait the curse and appendages out. This fight was frantic, as Baal would hit us with Blood Mana immediately when we got anywhere near him. Bones would try to find a spot where we could see Baal and would start letting Spirits fly while downing greater healers every 2 seconds or so. We could usually go for ~10 seconds before we would pop out a TP and restock pots, unless Baal cloned himself or cast an appendage that could hit Bones. This fight took a long time, with Bones health fluctuating a bunch during the whole fight (never in a NDE kind of way, but once we started spamming Spirits life would continuously drop even while drinking pots the whole time. Spear would have worked better because its damage is only bit lower than Spirits and the mana cost is about half, so Blood Mana wouldn’t have hurt as bad. I just couldn’t consistently get them to hit Baal enough so we felt that Spirit was worth the extra pain it would cost us. Bones ended up burning 18 TP scrolls during this fight! This was actually one of the most fun battles I’ve had in D2, with Baal and Bones both being pretty evenly matched. It was also one of the first times I can remember Baal actually seeming like and end game boss. Bones, however, was the victor! If we make it to Hell Baal, that fight should be pretty epic!
The TP into the cows put us into a great starting spot with no cows immediately in sight. The Cow King came out early in the clear and wasn’t a problem. The cows themselves were pretty challenging because they have a bunch of HP at P8. Bones handled large crowds by funneling them with walls into a narrow corridor, the prisoning the closest cow. Bones could usually get off a decent number of spears before the cows broke through. Bones had an Io and a Dol drop during this clear. Bones has had 3 Hel runes for a little while now but it didn’t do us any good to cube them into an Io and then not have the Hel that we needed to make the Lionheart. The Dol was cubed with the 2 other Dols that Bones has to make a 4th Hel, which was then used to make a third Io, which finally results in the long awaited Lum!
Bones will now be doing a bunch of shopping, gambling, and gear rearranging to prepare for Hell. The newly minted Lionheart and a newly created Edge Composite Bow will fuel this spree. I will post full details of Bones setup before beginning Act 1 Hell.
Conqueror Bones, level 75 Energy P&B Necromancer, with Kyoko the Fire Rouge. Act 1 Hell.
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