Another two characters made it to Act V:
Fester, the Holy Freeze Paladin, and the still undecided how to spend his skill points Barbarian Lurch!
Fester went 3rd, and Holy Freeze made everything safe, although Izual took ages to defeat - 11946 Hit Points with 75% cold resistance is nothing to sniff at...Hephasto was much easier in that regard and I quickly gathered 3 more WTs.
Maggots were easy to defeat, because the pulse of my HF aura killed most of the spawns so I could focus on the big ones
Diablo was going to be the ultimate challenge (that was the idea in Diablo 2 classic, wasn't it?) - thus I prepared by saving a combat shrine close to a WP
The combat shrine couldn't save my rogue merc unfortunately, and she died while trying to run away from Diablo's Firestorm...running away IN its wake rather than FROM its wake...oh well
I had the impression, that getting chilled in melee range was more dangerous than staying away (Diablo would often catch me with one of his magic attacks mid-swing when chilled), so I switched to Ranger and took on Diablo from afar:
It really wasn't clear who was the hunter and who the hunted, but in the end (and after some potion and arrow restock) Diablo proved to be the game not me:
And I gained a level! That's level 28 for Fester.
And I rolled a sweety for a change:
# 89 You can equip any unique weapon
What a game changer for my next character: Lurch. (yeah, I spent the WTs)
I didn't really expect much trouble, because of his overpowered Circlet (you remember the bazillion elemental damage circlet?) and because now he was able to use Crushflange (his only unique weapon so far). That even set my fire resistance to 75! nice!
My lightning resistance was only 12 though...lucky me that the first boss I encountered was LE...
But if you look closely, you'll see that shiny lightning bolt over my head
yeah, that was a lightning resistance shrine next to the LE boss - Diablo 2, the game that delivers the solution to your problems instantly!
Until...
Well, but I managed to position myself better this time and was in no real danger (although the guy took one purple out of me).
Izual wasn't really a problem, because Crushflange with its crushing blow dealt quickly with him. But the maggots in the RoF...my gosh! Fighting with a single attack skill really is a nuisance, especially with Maggot bosses! Just in time I remembered having Leap Attack and thus Lurch was hopping around over seas of maggots and grotesque spawns to smash the brains of their creators (huh? what's the word I'm looking for here? mothers???)
I found another Arctic Belt from the Smith (Ding! 3 more WTs!) and then proceeded into Diablo's lair. I went chicken and abused leap attack to leap away from Lord de Seis over the chasm and shoot down the whole pack with bow and arrows:
Then I made use of the fact, that minions of boss packs often only attack you, if you get into their bosses aggro range...because of how Infector of Souls spawns with this configuration, I was able to take out over half of his squad from this point: Hold shift down while I fire blindly until a minion runs towards me (without attacking me), then focus on it but keep on holding down shift so that you will shoot at it even if it runs away until it dies. Repeat.
Somewhere inbetween I must have hit Infector, because he came sprinting to me. But he got the Lord de Seis treatment:
Then there was only Diablo left. As I already said, having 75% resistance is a boon, but 12% lightning resistance? And as if Diablo knew that, he used his lightning hose maybe 10 times more often than his firestorm! Isn't that unfair? luckily, I could survive one lightning hose at full health even if I stood completely in its range (if barely). after some hit and run (damn those chilling attacks from Diablo!) I fell into a rhythm of moving away from him in a specific angle once I was chilled to avoid getting caught up in the lightning. I chose to hold my ground in the firestorm and ran away as fast as I could when he used his lightning hose.
If I hadn't have Crushflange, this fight would have definitely been bad (I used up 4 Full Rejuvs even with Crushflange). I guess I would have opted for ranged attack against Diablo as well if it wasn't for Crushflange.
No more pictures left to post the Diablo loot
But he did drop an Axe of Fechmar, which might come in handy due to its freezes target...I will have to try it out. But since I will probably go one hand/block/Concentrate, I might look for another weapon.
The scroll roll was good, too, this time:
#147 You can equip any set helm
That means that right now I can equip set boots, helm, belt and one other set item (if I learn the scroll - didn't do that yet). Now I only need to find the Sigon's pieces
How is everyone else doing?