Act 2 done. Was easy except one moment - Viper Temple Lvl 2. Snakes attack was so fierce that they instantly cornered me. I escaped though the stairs, but what then? Go back? Too dangerous, but replaying whole area is a bit cheaty for Single Pass Mode and tiresome as well, especially that I missed Lost City WP. There was an amulet of teleport, but I removed it to mule. However I still had +30 speed circlet in stash. So I decided to take a risk. Went down - there were some 3-4 snakes (boss away, around the corner), but I noticed, they need some 1 second to attack. So I took this opportunity and ran... into a crowd of skeletons with a big radament-type mummy. However, speed was enough to outmaneuver them - so grabbed amu and quickly tped. Uuuhh, that was tough.
2nd dangerous moment was with Duriel himself (drop was blue/yellow crap). Actually he was easy taking into accound my running speed and 75 cold res. When some 5% of his life remained, he suddenly smashed me with both so-called "hands", taking off ~80% of life. But luckily again, there was tp nearby and so I escaped.
Seems luck is still on my side so we are to storm A3 now.
Some interesting things dropped during A2 like Curio amulet, Spellsteel. But useless anyway. All stuff here. Clvl = 75 (almost 76)
All pretty straight-forward. Run to monsters, kick them till they're dead, get loot, move on.
Upgraded Stealth armour into Serpentskin base, upped a pair of tri-res heavy boots before entering the Ancient's Way. Sharkskin Boots doubled Marita's damage. Strength was made in a scimitar which was handy against the Ancients, Lister and co and Baal. Cows were probably the most dangerous area so far. Individually the were pretty easy, but if a big pack started to surround Marita and got her into hit recovery then her life could drop very fast.
9 S/U's dropped. None of them very interesting.
One skill point in all the Martial Arts tree with Dragon Talon and PS maxed. Also 5 pts in Claws of Thunder. Will probably max Dragon Flight next, for the AR.
Looking forward to picking up a merc in Act 2, although it hasn't really been a problem so far.
My flaming werebear from the S/U tournament died in the Maggot Lair in NM after being surrounded by maggot young in the breeding chamber. Yes, of course he could kill every baby maggot in 1 hit but even that wasn't fast enough.
Yikes! I'll definitely keep that in mind if and when Yau gets there, although he will at least have some effective life leech from Maul + Hunger. Either way, thanks for the heads up!
Argh!!! Krelos has died because of a stupid mistake. My daughter let the dogs run into our bedroom and one always pisses on our carpet, so I jumped up to get them out of there and forgot to TP out to safety. Scarabs and my favorite bats came out of hiding while I was in one of the tombs in UK and must have overwhelmed my 1 skeleton, Gumby, 4 Mages and Rogue. Man, this build was proving to be so fun too. Thank goodness I was only level 30 and still in normal or I probably would have blown a gasket. I guess Ema gets my full attention now.
Ema and Devak have defeated Diablo, well actually Devak wasn't much help with his inability to move out of blast radius from Diablo's lightning hose. The poison was very slow at dropping Diablo's health, so I threw several LF javelins as well and that seemed to help a lot. He dropped our third green breast plate and a bunch of useless rare items.
A3 finished. Everyone knows how dangerous Act 3 may be. But it ran smoothly, well.. except a couple bad moments. One was with green birds just at the very begging. How so? 1 hit - and I'm with 30% HP. Maybe because of my bad poision resist, but I'm not sure. Anyway, once birds were somewhere far behind, we had bad time doing book quest with some really fast women packs there with no place to maneuver. Generally, we moved slowly and with care, especially in places with dolls. Council was not hard, as well as Mef Council (luckily no fana or might auras). Mef himself was even easier than on 8 ppl nm, but dropped crap and 1 berserk armor. In the upper kurast I've got UM though, so thinking about Duress for ancients (simply because of cold damage it gives).
Name: Barry
Class: Barbarian
Experience: 41923923
Level: 48
Naked/Gear
Strength: 90/90
Dexterity: 80/87
Vitality: 85/107
Energy: 70/70
HP: 409/423 (747 with Battle Orders)
Mana: 117/350 (546 with Battle Orders)
Stamina: 199/219
Defense: 20/196
AR: 385/450
Fire: 94/54/-6
Cold: 74/34/-26
Lightning: 71/31/-29
Poison: 68/28/-32
MF: 0 Block: 18
GF: 18
FR/W: 35
FHR: 80
IAS: 0
FCR: 51
Bash: 0/0
Leap: 0/0
Double Swing: 0/0
Stun: 0/0
Double Throw: 0/0
Leap Attack: 0/0
Concentrate: 0/0
Frenzy: 0/0
Whirlwind: 0/0
Berserk: 0/0
Sword Mastery: 0/0
Axe Mastery: 0/0
Mace Mastery: 0/0
Pole Arm Mastery: 0/0
Throwing Mastery: 0/0
Spear Mastery: 0/0
Increased Stamina: 0/0
Iron Skin: 0/0
Increased Speed: 0/0
Natural Resistance: 0/0
Howl: 20/23
Find Potion: 1/4
Taunt: 1/4
Shout: 1/4
Find Item: 1/4
Battle Cry: 19/22
Battle Orders: 4/7
Grim Ward: 0/0
War Cry: 3/6
Battle Command: 1/4
Mercenary:
Name: Ajheed
Race: Eastern Sorceror
Type: Fire-Normal
Experience: 11410430
Level: 46
Dead?: false
Naked/Gear
Strength: 87/95
Dexterity: 71/71
HP: 439/466
Defense: 252/374
AR: 381/401
Fire: 99/59/-1
Cold: 99/59/-1
Lightning: 125/85/25
Poison: 99/59/-1
Darkglow
Ring Mail
Defense: 93
Durability: 24 of 26
Required Level: 14
Required Strength: 36
Fingerprint: 0x3ecd980
Item Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Attack Rating
+91% Enhanced Defense
+50 Defense vs. Melee
+5% to Maximum Poison Resist
+5% to Maximum Cold Resist
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
+5% to Maximum Fire Resist
All Resistances +10
+3 to Light Radius
Gale Cowl
Circlet
Defense: 29
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 19
Fingerprint: 0x7025fe02
Item Level: 32
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+8 to Strength
+27 to Life
+12 Maximum Stamina
All Resistances +10
Lightning Resist +26%
Superior Long Sword
One Hand Damage: 3 - 20
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Strength: 55
Required Dexterity: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2c3f403a
Item Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Enhanced Damage
Increase Maximum Durability 10%
Gear is pretty terrible so far. Used Larzuk reward to punch 4 holes in a sword to make my first 'Spirit' and used 2 gem shrines in Nihl's temple to create a P. Ruby so I could craft some Blood Gloves for my only source of Crushing Blow, which I'm sure was the only way I was able to defeat Baal. (Took ~45 minutes still)
I have the runes to make a second 'Spirit' although it's tempting to use the Amn to make 'Edge' for gambling. Mana isn't as bad as I thought it would be without 'Insight' but then again, I have only been casting Warcry at level 7 to keep the mana as low as I can.
Edit:
Cleared up to the Stony Field, and lookie what I got!
Code:
Skull Wing
Amulet
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x8b4e4be6
Item Level: 37
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+10% Faster Cast Rate
+87 to Mana
Poison Resist +13%
Poison Length Reduced by 75%
Long Sword
One Hand Damage: 3 - 19
Durability: 26 of 44
Required Strength: 55
Required Dexterity: 39
Fingerprint: 0x58f0f152
Item Level: 37
Version: Expansion 1.10+
4 Sockets (0 used)
Couldn't ask for much better of an Amulet, and a second 'Spirit' base. Nice timing for some SORELY needed upgrades.
Argh!!! Krelos has died because of a stupid mistake. My daughter let the dogs run into our bedroom and one always pisses on our carpet, so I jumped up to get them out of there and forgot to TP out to safety. Scarabs and my favorite bats came out of hiding while I was in one of the tombs in UK and must have overwhelmed my 1 skeleton, Gumby, 4 Mages and Rogue. Man, this build was proving to be so fun too. Thank goodness I was only level 30 and still in normal or I probably would have blown a gasket. I guess Ema gets my full attention now.
A3 finished. Everyone knows how dangerous Act 3 may be. But it ran smoothly, well.. except a couple bad moments. One was with green birds just at the very begging. How so? 1 hit - and I'm with 30% HP. Maybe because of my bad poision resist, but I'm not sure. Anyway, once birds were somewhere far behind, we had bad time doing book quest with some really fast women packs there with no place to maneuver. Generally, we moved slowly and with care, especially in places with dolls. Council was not hard, as well as Mef Council (luckily no fana or might auras). Mef himself was even easier than on 8 ppl nm, but dropped crap and 1 berserk armor. In the upper kurast I've got UM though, so thinking about Duress for ancients (simply because of cold damage it gives).
Nice progress, that's some seriously low life you've got, stay safe!
logoutzero said:
Barry has defeated Normal and cleared cows!
Code:
Name: Barry
Class: Barbarian
Experience: 41923923
Level: 48
Naked/Gear
Strength: 90/90
Dexterity: 80/87
Vitality: 85/107
Energy: 70/70
HP: 409/423 (747 with Battle Orders)
Mana: 117/350 (546 with Battle Orders)
Stamina: 199/219
Defense: 20/196
AR: 385/450
Fire: 94/54/-6
Cold: 74/34/-26
Lightning: 71/31/-29
Poison: 68/28/-32
MF: 0 Block: 18
GF: 18
FR/W: 35
FHR: 80
IAS: 0
FCR: 51
Bash: 0/0
Leap: 0/0
Double Swing: 0/0
Stun: 0/0
Double Throw: 0/0
Leap Attack: 0/0
Concentrate: 0/0
Frenzy: 0/0
Whirlwind: 0/0
Berserk: 0/0
Sword Mastery: 0/0
Axe Mastery: 0/0
Mace Mastery: 0/0
Pole Arm Mastery: 0/0
Throwing Mastery: 0/0
Spear Mastery: 0/0
Increased Stamina: 0/0
Iron Skin: 0/0
Increased Speed: 0/0
Natural Resistance: 0/0
Howl: 20/23
Find Potion: 1/4
Taunt: 1/4
Shout: 1/4
Find Item: 1/4
Battle Cry: 19/22
Battle Orders: 4/7
Grim Ward: 0/0
War Cry: 3/6
Battle Command: 1/4
Mercenary:
Name: Ajheed
Race: Eastern Sorceror
Type: Fire-Normal
Experience: 11410430
Level: 46
Dead?: false
Naked/Gear
Strength: 87/95
Dexterity: 71/71
HP: 439/466
Defense: 252/374
AR: 381/401
Fire: 99/59/-1
Cold: 99/59/-1
Lightning: 125/85/25
Poison: 99/59/-1
Darkglow
Ring Mail
Defense: 93
Durability: 24 of 26
Required Level: 14
Required Strength: 36
Fingerprint: 0x3ecd980
Item Level: 29
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Attack Rating
+91% Enhanced Defense
+50 Defense vs. Melee
+5% to Maximum Poison Resist
+5% to Maximum Cold Resist
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
+5% to Maximum Fire Resist
All Resistances +10
+3 to Light Radius
Gale Cowl
Circlet
Defense: 29
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 19
Fingerprint: 0x7025fe02
Item Level: 32
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+8 to Strength
+27 to Life
+12 Maximum Stamina
All Resistances +10
Lightning Resist +26%
Superior Long Sword
One Hand Damage: 3 - 20
Durability: 48 of 48
Required Strength: 55
Required Dexterity: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2c3f403a
Item Level: 21
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Enhanced Damage
Increase Maximum Durability 10%
Gear is pretty terrible so far. Used Larzuk reward to punch 4 holes in a sword to make my first 'Spirit' and used 2 gem shrines in Nihl's temple to create a P. Ruby so I could craft some Blood Gloves for my only source of Crushing Blow, which I'm sure was the only way I was able to defeat Baal. (Took ~45 minutes still)
I have the runes to make a second 'Spirit' although it's tempting to use the Amn to make 'Edge' for gambling. Mana isn't as bad as I thought it would be without 'Insight' but then again, I have only been casting Warcry at level 7 to keep the mana as low as I can.
Edit:
Cleared up to the Stony Field, and lookie what I got!
Code:
Skull Wing
Amulet
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x8b4e4be6
Item Level: 37
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Barbarian Skill Levels
+10% Faster Cast Rate
+87 to Mana
Poison Resist +13%
Poison Length Reduced by 75%
Long Sword
One Hand Damage: 3 - 19
Durability: 26 of 44
Required Strength: 55
Required Dexterity: 39
Fingerprint: 0x58f0f152
Item Level: 37
Version: Expansion 1.10+
4 Sockets (0 used)
Couldn't ask for much better of an Amulet, and a second 'Spirit' base. Nice timing for some SORELY needed upgrades.
Nice progress, and that's a really amazing amulet for your build!!
I've been steadily making progress, just haven't done a good job of updating. Act 2 was pretty simple, I continued to use my 1 pt fissure and bolder, but I could now hide behind my merc, who did most of the early killing. Once I hot 24 and got tornado things were better, as I could do some damage. I continued the use of fissure sometimes, as it worked good for large group of things like skeletons and beetles still. Got a crazy drop in lost city. Yes, that is from a flying scimitar trap with 0 MF . Wasn't that a thing to find in one of your scavenger hunts, Jiansonz?
Act was no issue, the mummies were a bit of a pain, but nothing major. Durial was pretty easy, as tornado took him down quickly. Gambled this circlet along the way, pretty nice one, just going on the merc for now though.
Act 3 was real easy, especially once I got hurricane. Stuff just melts. Found a few sets and uniques along the way, but nothing useful. Found this ring, since everyone else was finding great MF stuff I wanted to join the party. I got scared fighting these thrashers and tried to hide in this box. Some kind of layering issue, I think because of the size of the thrashers, because after they were dead it went back to normal.
The hardest part about Meph was getting my tornadoes to actually hit him, sometimes those little buggers are really annoying! Nothing too useful in the drop. Pure vitality isn't too bad so far, I can keep my strength at 30 without too much trouble, so I can wear anything I really want to now. And over 500 life already is pretty sweet.
Ready to take on Diablo, but this is the first time I've played act 4 in about a year and a half, so hopefully I don't do anything stupid in the chaos sanctuary
I would say things are getting even better, but the Underground Passage had a nice troll for me...
<- Sad panda...
Small update:
Dark Wood is cleared, Cain is rescued, level 49. Got my third 'Spirit' up and running (went to merc). 63 FCR is almost enough to keep most bosses stunlocked, but I think 105 is needed for this. I'm used to running 200, but I seriously doubt that happening in this tourney.
Argh!!! Krelos has died because of a stupid mistake. My daughter let the dogs run into our bedroom and one always pisses on our carpet, so I jumped up to get them out of there and forgot to TP out to safety. Scarabs and my favorite bats came out of hiding while I was in one of the tombs in UK and must have overwhelmed my 1 skeleton, Gumby, 4 Mages and Rogue. Man, this build was proving to be so fun too. Thank goodness I was only level 30 and still in normal or I probably would have blown a gasket. I guess Ema gets my full attention now.
You gotta learn to first hit ESC and then jump up (unless you really can't afford half a second...)
kestegs said:
Got a crazy drop in lost city. Yes, that is from a flying scimitar trap with 0 MF . Wasn't that a thing to find in one of your scavenger hunts, Jiansonz?
Ye, I have some spare time, but the thing is - I do not clean everything everywhere (at least since the middle of NM), so my level as u see is somewhat low for 4 act hell (in comparison with people in other tournaments who made it this far). It is a bit boring for me do full cleaning with zero MF and that doesn't really matter if I approach ancies with lvl 80 or 86 for example.
Act 4 finished and here we go to Harr?gath. First three areas were full of light immunes, I skipped them, so still lvl 77 -) Blacksmith was very easy (physical immune only) and dropped MAL (which I don't really need, unfortunately). Chaos was a long walk, but also easy as well as Diablo (damned, again yellow crap + 1 green crap (Acanna Armor). Not a single dangerous moment per all act (If I were a sorc and so had more damage, I would probably make it p4). One boss dropped Sazabi Armor - but well, I don't think I'll use it.
Last act can be tricky as Act 3 and may bring sudden and totally unexpected death. But the most challenging thing is hell ancies, of course. Only 1 try! Some chars/builds have no or almost no chances here. But not mine, that is why I actually chose it. Here I have 3 plans: A, B, and C.
A plan - is to make Harmony bow (I have found 4 sock already) and try to tank them with 20 revives. The problem here, though, is that I'll have to pick them up from nearby area and they can be not so good. Anyway, I don't lose anything here, when they are dead, I just throw this bow away.
B plan - try to separate them with tele amu (I've got even 2 of them) and do them with merc. This may work well, taking into account amn'ed Kelpie. However, probably I'll still have just a few red/purple pots for merk - all inventory will be full with charms and adding pots there may not solve the problem at all.
C plan - just run... if they are not spawned as super-fast, there is a chance, just do it like I did it on 4 ppl NM. It took time, but it worked - run around putting traps, trying to avoid even a single hit. The curse here is their immunes - and of course, fire+light immune. In this case we are in a trouble and can rely only on some cold/magic damage (3/8 wep) from sentinel blades (maxed already). There is 3/4 wep damage surikens, but they are a bit dangerous - I can get a hit (and under possible amplify curse even 1 hit can be deadly). In this case the damage will be extremely low and it can take more than 1 or maybe even 2 hours to finish them (him). But there's nothing else I can do. Maybe Duress armor will help a bit with its ~100 cold dam, and also I can take ginthers rift sword with its 100 magic damage and if I recall correctly 75 physical. Almost 300, but only half from that (3/8 wep), so smth about 130 perhaps. However, +100 from lvl 20 sentinel blade, so 230 dam only. Together with that - poor AR - but may be I'll boost it a bit with sigon and some charms, though not sure this will help much.
@jiansonz - Ya, I'm new at HC, so that was definitely a rookie move. How's your Mages' killing power? Think you'll need to summon monsters? When I swapped out gear, my killing speed and safety changed big time. I actually had to keep on my toes with 1 warrior, four mages, CG and rogue. However I wanted to commit to being more of true LoM.
Unless you have a better source of CB it's probably a good switch weapon for killing bosses and such. CE is also nice sometimes, but probably not that necessary most of the time.
Azimuthus said:
Act 4 finished and here we go to Harr?gath. First three areas were full of light immunes, I skipped them, so still lvl 77 -) Blacksmith was very easy (physical immune only) and dropped MAL (which I don't really need, unfortunately). Chaos was a long walk, but also easy as well as Diablo (damned, again yellow crap + 1 green crap (Acanna Armor). Not a single dangerous moment per all act (If I were a sorc and so had more damage, I would probably make it p4). One boss dropped Sazabi Armor - but well, I don't think I'll use it.
Last act can be tricky as Act 3 and may bring sudden and totally unexpected death. But the most challenging thing is hell ancies, of course. Only 1 try! Some chars/builds have no or almost no chances here. But not mine, that is why I actually chose it. Here I have 3 plans: A, B, and C.
A plan - is to make Harmony bow (I have found 4 sock already) and try to tank them with 20 revives. The problem here, though, is that I'll have to pick them up from nearby area and they can be not so good. Anyway, I don't lose anything here, when they are dead, I just throw this bow away.
B plan - try to separate them with tele amu (I've got even 2 of them) and do them with merc. This may work well, taking into account amn'ed Kelpie. However, probably I'll still have just a few red/purple pots for merk - all inventory will be full with charms and adding pots there may not solve the problem at all.
C plan - just run... if they are not spawned as super-fast, there is a chance, just do it like I did it on 4 ppl NM. It took time, but it worked - run around putting traps, trying to avoid even a single hit. The curse here is their immunes - and of course, fire+light immune. In this case we are in a trouble and can rely only on some cold/magic damage (3/8 wep) from sentinel blades (maxed already). There is 3/4 wep damage surikens, but they are a bit dangerous - I can get a hit (and under possible amplify curse even 1 hit can be deadly). In this case the damage will be extremely low and it can take more than 1 or maybe even 2 hours to finish them (him). But there's nothing else I can do. Maybe Duress armor will help a bit with its ~100 cold dam, and also I can take ginthers rift sword with its 100 magic damage and if I recall correctly 75 physical. Almost 300, but only half from that (3/8 wep), so smth about 130 perhaps. However, +100 from lvl 20 sentinel blade, so 230 dam only. Together with that - poor AR - but may be I'll boost it a bit with sigon and some charms, though not sure this will help much.
You can bring in a bunch of pots and toss them on the ground before you activate the ancients, I've done that at times for hell ancients. Not sure what the disappear timer is on potions, but I think maybe 10 min or so.
Another trick can be to load your Cube up with pots, then when you need to fill up, open your inventory and toss your Cube on the ground. The contents will spill into your inventory (if you have room, then Shift+Click them to your belt) or (more ideally) if your inventory is full, they will spill out to the ground, where you can quickly scramble to pick them to your freshly emptied belt. This method works well if you don't need dozens of spare pots for the fight.
And yeah kegs, I have 6% on my crafted Blood gloves. 40% would help it proc much more often, but since the amount of damage it does is diminished to near minuscule amounts after ~1/4 health, more procs will only speed the fights up by what I think might be a negligible amount of seconds. I'll still probably try it out, just not sure if it's actually gonna make a difference in the long run.
Deeds lv51 in Jail 2 to a LI/CI Dark One pack. Thought I could handle it (I had just taken on 2 other LI/CI packs) but I must have stood just right (wrong?) and caught too many Death Explosion filled Charged Bolts from my shout... Dang. Not sure if I will re-enter. I was looking for a way to re-start my career, and I think this did it.
Lesson Learned? Yeah, Fire Mage stinks. His A.I. wants him in Inferno range far too often, which buggy as it is, is totally worthless. Once in a while, you can get him to launch only Fireballs at a target, and he does something at least... Next time, I will just stick to Act II, and park any PI's I come to.
Thank goodness I was only level 30 and still in normal or I probably would have blown a gasket. I guess Ema gets my full attention now.
. Wasn't that a thing to find in one of your scavenger hunts, Jiansonz?
