Atalanta made lots of progress over the weekend. I'll try to keep it to the highlights.
Made a 'Steel' Flail once I finally got a Tir rune to drop. Decoy finally gave me the ability for some crowd control. Atalanta is still pretty safe at this point, but things die faster when they're not all trying to hit me at once. The decoy is great to throw at ranged attackers, or to just generally hold the attention of some baddies while I focus on the priority targets:
Duriel was mostly a pushover. Just had to use a few healing pots when he managed to connect. He dropped Sander's boots, but I don't think I'll be keeping them. Found a couple of
set items in the Arachnid Lair sparkly chest.
Valkyrie was available mid-Act III. Once she has some more skill points, she'll be the
real crowd control. For now, I had to take over tanking duties when we fought Mephisto.
Within a few minutes of stepping into Act IV, I found an Amn rune and a 2os Blade. So I made
'Strength'. The base damage isn't that great so this will mostly be used for Act bosses. We're still on the lookout for a nice Sword to put King's Grace in for the next Amn rune. Hellforge dropped an Ort and a Perfect Ruby.
Diablo was also tanked by Atalanta, as I didn't think the Valkyrie would withstand his lightning hose for long. Popped a healing pot each time he hosed me, and he went down smoothly. No merc/valk deaths.
On to Act V! A
couple of
uniques were found while working on Anya's quest. Sadly, nothing I really needed. I found I could safely stand up to 2 or 3 frenzytaurs at a time without too many problems.
Here I have my new 'Lore' helm and a magic Plate mail with life and LR. She's all about the blood and bones look right now. It was also at this point that my Valkyrie surpassed me in usefulness. Once she hit level 8 and got her Rare Lance, she was a death machine. A couple of times I saw her one-shot Defilers and Demon Imps. Itonya, my rogue mercenary had a shiny new 'Zephyr' Edge Bow while I was still getting mileage out of my 'Steel' Flail.
The Ancients were not difficult at all either. Pre-cast a Decoy in the middle before I activated them, then ran off screen to try and split them up a bit. Madawc followed me while the other two were focused on killing my double.
Shortly after this screenie, Korlic leaped at my face. The Valkyrie came with him and we both worked on dispatching him while Madawc annoyed me with his tomahawks to block. Talic was still valiantly trying to whirl my Decoy to death.
Madawc dropped soon after Korlic went down and poor Talic stood no chance. I didn't get a level out of this fight. I want a refund.
We drove on, destroying Baal's forces. Lister's pack had to be split up so they didn't knockback my Decoy and Valk all day long and then switch to me. Baal himself ignored my Valkyrie, so I took charge and withstood his attacks. Something like 6 Super Healers later, and he died.
His drop was just as useless as the un-mentioned Diablo drop. I got a much better item earlier, somewhere in the WSK or Throne:
It was used, as you can see, to mercilessly slice up some hamburger.
Atalanta pressed onwards into Nightmare difficulty. She found she could still keep the attention of 2 to 3 mobs without risking too much. Her chance to block is ever so slowly dropping every couple of levels. To help out, I crafted a safety amulet to get 8% more chance to block, with a bonus of +46 life and 40% GF along with it's built-in PDR/MDR. She dropped her magic Plate mail for a 3os Gothic Plate. It's got 2 perfect rubies in it, awaiting a third. At some point this will likely be replaced with a similar setup once I find something nice with 4 sockets. We also have a nice belt with +78 life, at the loss of 2 rows of pots (which I actually don't need much anyway right now). Oh, and that Bone Shield we settled for back in Act II? It's now Atalanta's Sturdy Bone Shield of Deflecting, nicely socketed by Larzuk and holding 2 Perfect Diamonds. She's also still rocking the Hotspurs. Resists are sitting at 69/23/53/78, Life is at 619, and we only have 6% life leech from a Cathan's Seal.
Anyway, Atalanta safely cleared out the Den of Evil and dispatched Blood Raven (once we finally got her in a corner!). Things are still looking great so far. From here on I'll probably be doing more bite-sized updates.
Destroyer Atalanta - Level 49 Passivezon -- Ready to head out from the Stony Field WP
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