@zoo: What were those unique rings?
(I did a quick look back in the thread in case you've already mentioned it, but couldn't find anything about it.)
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(Long post ahead...consider yourselves notified...)
A
lot happened for Viridissima the Amazon in Act II Nightmare. I am still going all-out MF (well, I
did sell my 1% medium-sized charm but that's about the compromise I've accepted...). Kill speed or safety have been of minor concern. That will likely change in the next act. Gloams are no joke if you have bad resist, especially if you (like her) have stupid companions that just want to charge at them.
Gear's been swapped around a bit and mercs have been swapped twice. Viri also now know what build she is going to be.
I got to experience the 'self-serving MF snowball' that I think Insane Wayne once mentioned as having "tremendous power if you can get it rolling". High MF -> more MF S/U items get found -> a.s.o.
Started out the act at 82%, and it took a while at first to get rolling. The early areas were much like the last act. Damien with Bloodletter and level 8 Valkyrie (with rare Lance) doing the killing, Valkyrie and my maxed Decoy tank. Large (unleechable) skeleton hordes meant Damien couldn't tank very well, so I often needed to pull him back. When needed, Viri also provided some decent damage output with her Chieftain Tabar.
This screenie has the caption: "Darn, I should have brought my poison charm..."
This didn't work out, I had to pull back and do some painstaking luring-out of mummies. Here is how it looked when we finally had a winnable situation. Decoy doing the sarcophagus blocking:
To make things less complicated, I went without Valkyrie for the Maggot Lair, except for the last room.
In there, I had to recast her a few times, but Damien had no problems stealing enough life to be topped-out nearly the whole time. The first change took place after the Maggot Lair.
Iratha's Collar (Sewers level 1)
Cathan's Visage #2 (Bloodwitch the Wild)
Cathan's Seal #2 (Far Oasis chest)
Tancred's Crowbill #2 (Maggot Lair level 1)
Vidala's Snare (Maggot Lair level 1)
Vidala's is one of the MF set amulets but the only other piece I had was the bow. Alright, not much choice there. I still wanted Sigon's Guard on switch so I could summon Killer Valkyries. No good one-handers to choose from, really, but since I may swap to Sigon's Guard when I'm in trouble, I had Berserker's Hatchet there for the partial set +50 life bonus. So essentially, Viri could now no longer kill anything by herself.
I did put back the poison damage charm, though, which was useful here:
But that screenie is getting ahead of the finds a little. They continued like this:
Isenhart's Horns (Lost City)
(ethereal)
Blade of Ali Baba (Ancient Tunnels)
Civerb's Ward (Claw Viper Temple level 1)
Yowza! That was only the 4th or so Tulwar of
any quality Viri had seen. Since my weapon slot was needed for MF, I gave it to Damien. Slower than Bloodletter and without life steal but with
much higher damage. More complicated gameplay, though. Barb mercs are good against a single enemy (even if it's a very strong one) but if they can't steal life, they are vulnerable to mobs.
I knew CVT level 2 would likely be the most exciting place in the act, fighting-wise. That Bash skill of the barb mercs really isn't good against snakes, because it often gives them way more Charge opportunities. You want a
stable fighting situation, with your tank(s) blocked by stuff behind so they don't get knocked back. (A Grizzly is great against them since it is immune to knockback.)
A few stray snakes at first, and I had no problem getting to the safe corner:
Then it quickly went downhill for Damien, and OH FRACK, Fangskin is Cursed! Just before I fled through the portal, I saw a green Winged Helm on the ground. Hey, I know what that is...
I didn't dare to go back through the portal, so I took the long road. Next try:
I spent some purples for Damien, but I realized this wasn't any good either. Fled upstairs again.
Got down, and just one snake met us. Great. Then came a larger pack, but no Fangskin. Without the Amp, they were far less scary. This may look like a slightly tense situation, but it really was quite stable:
Pretty easy win after that.
I had Damien don the green helm. When he no longer had Cathan's Visage, there was no use for him having Cathan's Mesh (he had that combo for the 15-20 fire damage). Better to give him something with more Defense. Almost upgraded Goldskin for him but then I thought that
I may want to wear Goldskin eventually and then it's not good if you need 140 STR to equip it...
Gave him an upgraded Venom Ward instead. The mods vs. poison would be useful in the Tombs.
I socketed Blade of Ali Baba with a +8 max damage jewel and a perfect emerald.
Guillaume's Face (Claw Viper Temple level 2)
Sander's Riprap (Palace Cellar level 3)
Stormstrike (Palace Cellar level 3)
Aldur's Stony Gaze (Arcane Sanctuary) <- unusable by Viri and mercs
Cathan's Mesh #4 (Canyon of the Magi)
Lance of Yaggai #2 (Tomb 1 sparkly chest)
(ethereal)
The Battlebranch (Tomb 1 sparkly chest)
Death's Touch (Tomb 3)
Angelic Mantle (Tomb 3)
Goldwrap (Tomb 3 - urn in treasure room)
I had already planned to do 3 false tombs, mule off, 3 false tombs, mule off, True tomb.
Here is the best kind of fighting formation vs. Gorebellies. Doorway, Valkyrie takes all the damage, Damien prevents her from getting knocked back while still reaching with his hits. Perfect:
Yes, I got one of those exciting 'few items' sparkly chest drops:
The last thing I did this session was looting the sparkly chest room in Tomb 3. This chest pumped out a ton of magical weapons and armors, many of them large. I needed something like 5 selling trips to take care of that. On my last trip, I noticed an urn I had missed (it was not visible - behind something). Goldwrap!
(So now all slots have S/U items. Goldwrap got upgraded, of course.)
The Angelic Mantle and that ethereal Battlebranch had me swap things around again. I felt handicapped when I couldn't kill things myself. Some other classes in that situation can teleport, curse, or kick/CoS/MB their way out of trouble. I have only my two summons to help in emergencies, and those are sometimes clumsy tools.
Time to decide which way to go. Viri will henceforth be a lightning Spearazon! After prereqs were filled, I could put 14-15 points in Charged Strike (conserving 13 points for future Valkyrie boost). Upgraded Lance of Yaggai. It so happens that the STR requirement for a Yari is 101, exactly the same as for a Tabar that I had already been using earlier.
I hired a Might merc and gave him (upgraded) ethereal Battlebranch. I equipped the armor/amulet/ring Angelic combo (with some neat bonuses). I still wanted to make use of the topaz-socketed Sigon's Shelter so my new merc received it. With armor slot occupied by Angelic Mantle, I need to equip Sigon's Guard to get the MF bonus on the boots. What goes well with that shield, as an MF (i.e. at this stage main) switch? Blade of Ali Baba...
This was a much more powerful setup. Good thing I chose my elemental build. Just in time, because we ran into one of these:
Lance of Yaggai has 30% IAS and Viri has another 40% off-weapon IAS. Those lightning pokes are
fast!
Took on Duriel at /p5. Piece of cake with our good damage output.
M'avina's Tenet (Tomb 5 beetle boss)
Magefist (Tomb 5)
Spirit Forge (Tomb 6)
Blacktongue (True Tomb)
Immortal's King's Will (True Tomb) <- Perfect MF value!
Isenhart's Parry (True Tomb) <- first completed set
Cathan's Sigil (Duriel)
Finding Spirit Forge of course meant that the merc's MF on his armor doubled before the True tomb. The fire damage and good Defense aren't bad either.
Blacktongue may not look like much, but it's the only item I've found with Prevent Monster Heal on it. Could be significant.
The green Barbarian helm, and I scored the 1/16 chance of 40% MF. I HAVE to try to make things work with a barbarian merc again!
I am now back with my Vidala's combo, with Sigon's armor on. Thinking about Gloams...
But now I have my dear spear on switch, and its resists and my level 1 Avoid should help if we do draw those Gloams. OTOH, now I have no shield and that's scary when entering temples. Oh well, maybe I'll keep it in the stash, just in case.
Viridissima the Lightning Spearazon and Vikhyat the Barbarian, level 60, NM Kurast Docks
62 S/U items found