@PhineasB: I would also like to compliment on your write-up, and how well you handled those Frenzytaur bosspacks and The Ancients. Scary and sneaky telebombing by Madawc...
Mirex moves on in Avt V NM. Act V really is pretty darn large...
Emilio does well with his upped Bloodthief, but against some enemies, I suspect that it's actually his Holy Freeze (backed by my maxed Conviction) that deals most of the damage. Plus the Open Wounds, of course. The spear is called
Bloodthief for a reason.
Even with some of those Death Maulers around, Emilio easily held his own in this fight:
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Thresh was a tough bugger. After he slammed Emilio to the ground in 3 seconds, I found it best to soften him up to a sliver from here:
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Frozen River was intense, with both Gloams and fast spearwomen. A bosspack killed Emilio, and it was good that I had recognized the danger and was already on the run when he died. Found a way to take them out from across the river:
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This was an interesting semi cul-de-sac placement of an evil urn:
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I had popped one earlier so I knew there would be Gloams (within the same game, all urns in an area always spawn the same monster type). I saved this and one more until after I had gained the extra 10% resist all from Malah. Lightning resist was up to 68 (and Fire 54) and Mirex has over 1300 life, so those wouldn't have been a big deal even if he'd been hit by a whole slew of Lightnings.
It is extremely likely that Duriel's Shell will be at least one of the two best armors for the late game, so Larzuk was put to work on it as soon as Shenk was dead. Perfect topaz there for now.
MF also increased in Glacial Trail after Arctic Mitts dropped. I had kept Arctic Binding in my stash for a long time. Cold resist took a leap up as well. But the cost is substantial: having only half the number of potions in the belt comparied to String of Ears, losing the nice PDR and also giving up Frostburn's huge mana boost. Before switching gloves, Mirex could cast 12 Fists of the Heavens from full mana. Now it's down to 8.
My merc had used the Cathan's two pieces combo for the extra fire damage, but now that he swapped to Duriel's Shell, there was no reason to use Cathan's mask any longer. Enter Coif of Glory. I gave it to him for the lightning resist, but the Hit Blinds Target has proven very useful. Duration is far longer than I had thought - I suppose it's a level vs. level thing and that we're currently overlevelled compared to the monsters. The blinding has made several monster types less annoying/dangerous. After taking one hit from Emilio, imps, gloams, rogue archers, slingers, vile witches, etc. will stay put (more or less) and not run away. Plus the gloams' attack are reduced to their weak melee version. Frenzytaurs won't Frenzy. And so on. Snakes can still use projectiles (Bone Spear, "Fire Spear") though. I suppose that is actually their default attack when they are guest monsters...
Not sure if I have mentioned it before, but Conviction works pretty well as a sort of 'life scan' device. I can hear when it affects monsters, often before I have seen those monsters. The one thing that
could be dangerous is that it's now much harder to spot Conviction bosses! Normally, when that aura hits your character, it's a large 'POTENTIAL DANGER!' sign. The danger level of course depends on what elemental damage is also around. But Mirex has that aura on his feet nearly all the time.
Got some mileage out of another aura that I only use occasionally. In Crystalline Passage, we ran into a trio of Champion Moon Lords. I thought to myself: "OK, gotta break them up so we only face one, then I can Smite-lock it. But dammit, they are just as fast as we are! Wait a minute...
*Vigor*
No, they aren't"
Sander's Superstition #2 (Pit of Acheron) <- same area as where I found #1 in Normal
Sigon's Gage (Bonesaw Breaker)
Arctic Mitts (Glacial Trail)
[Highlight]Destroyer Mirex the FoH/Conviction Paladin and Emilio the Holy Freeze guard, level 70, 77 S/U items found, NM Nihlathak's Temple next[/Highlight]