So, here’s the promised additional stories and footage to my journey(s):
Fester, the Holy Freeze Zealot
Fester is a very safe to play Holy Freeze Paladin. His high level HF aura caused most imps to instantly die when they came into the radius of Holy Freeze. This way, I couldn’t benefit from the higher MF of my merc, but chasing Imps is just so tedious that I didn’t mind.
This beauty was somehow tricky to build:
I had a low level crown shield. First, I used the cube recipe to make a normal quality crown shield out of it, which sets the ilvl to 1 (which results in a maximum of 2 sockets for the shield). I even got +10 resist all on it instead of the for my build rather useless %ED. Then, I used the cube socketing recipe and got 2 sockets. It really was a gamble, because it could have easily been 1 socket, but then I would have bought a 2 os Bone Shield from Drogan and lived with my choice. Now though, the gamble paid off and I have a really nice ResAll and high blocking shield J
The downsides of using Zeal:
The mods are really nice for a HF Zealot though: ML keeps the attacks coming, and the additional AR both from the axe and the partial set bonus really helped to hit things. For NM though, I will rather use this circlet I gambled (screenshot at the beginning of Act I NM, i.e. with the resist penalties):
Bonus pic - Physical oddities in Diablo II:
Gomez, the Skellimancer
Let the merc do some killings, raise 10 skeletons and done:
So next is the sorceres...
Nah, just kidding
of course I’ll write more about Gomez. But that is how gameplay with a skellimancer at p1 feels. It’s just a breeze.
Although Gomez had the second worst MF, he was somehow lucky in regards to S/U drops (ok, there’s one rare waldo in it):
To show how relaxing the gameplay is, I will show the whole screenshot of the Frostburn drop:
Gomez: “I wonder what’s in that casket...whoa! A unique item! Let’s see what it does..:”
Skellies: must...fight...dangerous...monsters... ... ... block...way...to...Gomez
But yeah, that’s it. I didn’t even need CE, so it is still level 1. I only used Amplify Damage against Baal and Nihlatak. Oh, and getting the merc scroll really made things easier. Before, I was never shutting down my computer in order to keep the game running, so that I would still have my skellies – it was an ordeal to get the first body to raise a skeleton. Now though? Easy peasy – Alhizeer takes care of the first bodies.
Grandmama, the FO/FW sorceress
After getting my merc, things were much easier, because at p1 he can kill almost anything. FW wasn’t even needed most of the time. The same with FO after hitting level 30. I kept staying in the background and let my merc do the killing for the additional MF. There were exceptions though:
Those guys seemed too bloodthirsty for my taste, so Firewall it was!
I really don’t know why I used FO over FW in the fight against the Ancients, but it worked:
And finally a Baal drop that made me happy and giggle madly in my chair:
Suicide Branch maybe isn’t the best for a FW/FO sorceress, but hey! You have to take what you get!
Summary: Grandmama before merc scroll: risky!!! Grandmama after merc: yawn...
Funny random note: She actually managed to gamble a set item: Death’s Hand leather gloves. I won’t complain...
Oh, and the Cow King was kind, too:
Now if it only were green heavy boots for the chance to be Cow King’s...or can he even drop them in Normal? Have to look it up...
Lurch, the probably? Concentrate Barb
Ah, probably the most tiresome character to play since putting points into Find Item. I chose tier 1 (level 5) for it and kept on horking...and horking...and horking. Malah made so much money off of me buying mana pots, she is probably now somewhere settled down in the Caribbean with a luxury villa and five dozen servants...
He, too, is fan of some “Rhyme”ing:
Even more Rhyming?
One of the nicer jewels I found so early on:
Boss putrid defilers? You bet!
And I guess I’ll take those?
Funny thing happend in the end – I couldn’t enter the portal to DESTRUCTION’S END (because of the pillar I guess?:
TBC in the next post...