I guess it still needs a lot of dex invested to get some decent block @Chaostar. Pretty sure it helped out a lot on my paladin though, and the boost to AR was welcome too
Nice going on the druid, but too bad on the sorc!, @CaseyJones
I'm still progressing, but slowly. I'm stubbornly trying to save all my skill improvement scrolls on my assasin, for now so I've cleared up to Canyon of the Magi with just left clicks and level 1 Wake of Fire. I was dead sure that I would hit level 24 before facing Duriel since she entered act 2 at more than a level higher than the paladin and he finished at over 23,5. However, she's not just above 21,5 and has cleared everything up until and including the arcane sanctum. Hope she finished strong exp-wise and I will surely have to clear some fake tombs!
Edit: Been awfully quiet from @Grisu lately. But I do suspect he will stroll in and drop 3-4 stories of strong finishes of act 2 on us any day now
[2019] [Tournament] Ability Scrolls Sept [by Chaostar]
- Thread starter Grisu
- Start date
Very sorry to hear about the demise of two sorceressesBetter luck for your next characters, @CaseyJones and @Chaostar!
zarfen said:Edit: Been awfully quiet from @Grisu lately. But I do suspect he will stroll in and drop 3-4 stories of strong finishes of act 2 on us any day now
Are you psychic? That's EXACTLY what I was going to do! Now here's my story from A to Z....*sings Spice Girls tune*
I voted for Gomez, the Necromancer, to go second. Wise choice. After all I was able to dump 10 hard points into Raise Skeleton. Really, whoever made up this skill - I am quite thankful to them! Strong in Normal, very safe to play. That's why I have the most screenshots from my Necromancer - press some print buttons while the Necromancer stands around and waits for everything to get killed by his mob of skeletons.
Maggot lair was indeed slow going, and sometimes I had to assist with my Wand of Not So Much Damage, but my Skeleton mage and my rogue merc provided some extra damage, so ... well, slow, but safe again.
This must be the most depressing arrangement of Waypoints I have ever seen - but my gaming session was longer than this, so no harm done.
A full on rares only drop is always something beautiful to the eye, but nothing useful among it
And then - the Duriel fight. I did as I announced and left some tombs and the Canyon unleared in order to have some corpse fodder for my raising of the dead. Turns out, so much wasn't needed. Duriel did drop after only three trips to the Canyon to replenish my army and then succumbed to the overwhelming forces ofevilmy skeleton army.
Kelpie Snare looks like a fine drop if I ever am allowed to
a) hire mercs
b) equip them
c) use a unique weapon
Finished Act II at level 23. My new draw from the deck was
# 79 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20)
Wow! 3rd time! Will come in handy in Act III.
Next up was Grandmama, the Sorceress. As you might know from the untimely deaths of fellow sorceresses, she was quite fragile and I had the most NDEs so far with her. She's just not used to being in front row fights without her Act II Town Guard meat shield...so, almost no screenshots from her mostly after everything was dead
[/SPOILER]
One really nice drop for any other character than my sorc:
She went for Fire Wall as intended, which is a powerful skill, but lacking a Town Guard merc was hard to compensate for. So I had to improvise quite often, and the maggot lair was a bigger pain than with my Necromancer. Positioning to get the FW down the tunnel and not 90° to it is quite hard to do...Duriel on the other hand though did drop quite fast, but hit so hard that I used up almost all of my Rejuvs.
She finished Act II at level 24 and got a new scroll:
#148 you can use any cube recipe involving no runes
I immediately used up the scroll, because that lets me cube Full Rejuvs and Savage Polearms and gems, so in addition to my other chosen scrolls (among them equip one magic item, one rare item and any magic ring) I fehlt safe to go next with my barbarian (lengthy post about Lurch, the Barbarian, following)
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So Lurch, the Barbarian, very soon chose to pay for the ability to use
- an item with IAS
- any set item
- set boots
because some nice drops (Hsarus' Iron Heel and Iron Fist) allowed him to
a) hit things (giant AR boost!)
b) eavde attacks (giant Defense boost!)
Here's the weapon I used from late Act II on:
Code:Beast Skewer Broad Sword One Hand Damage: 9 - 16 Durability: 96 of 96 Required Level: 3 Required Strength: 48 Fingerprint: 0x8f320138 Item Level: 17 Version: Expansion 1.10+ +10% Increased Attack Speed 15% Enhanced Damage +1 to Minimum Damage +54 to Attack Rating Adds 1 - 7 Lightning Damage
A failed unique even...up until I found it, I used a 14% ED superior Claymore 2-handed, because it was the most damaging I could find. My savage Lochaber Axe of Alacrity unfortunately was too heavy to be used (STR 80). So all of my cubed Savage Polearms were stashed away for maybe later use - who knows.
This time, I nearly lost my rogue merc to a CE beetle - nasty damage those bolts are dealing. In the end, I equipped a bow and shot it from afar, because melee was just too dangerous:
The Summoner was quite generous this time around - usually he just drops nothing, so I was really stunned:
All in all, my finds were quite generous, thanks to two 10% MF rings, a MF circlet (28% MF) and my rare gloves:
Code:Glyph Finger Leather Gloves Defense: 5 Durability: 12 of 12 Required Level: 13 Fingerprint: 0x7a187cd9 Item Level: 21 Version: Expansion 1.10+ 10% Chance to cast level 3 Nova when struck +38% Enhanced Defense Cold Resist +12% Poison Resist +17% 12% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Facing Duriel (of course with my teleport-bugged rogue, so that Duriel won't attack her) I was unsure on how to proceed: Up until now, I hadn't chosen any skill tree to use and I wanted to keep my choices open as long as possible. I was still debating War Cries vs. Combat Skills. The first would make the build much safer against crowds and while questing, the second better against Duriel. I chose the latter for Concentration and used that skill against Duriel (yeah, so I was afraid of Duriel ... so what?)
My findings on the choice:
- yes, concentrate was good against Duriel (see pic below - I didn't use Concentrate in the pic and was immediately stunned)
- no, it wasn't needed against Duriel. (see pic below - not much damage done)
Really, AR and Defense were good enough to fight Duriel toe on toe (or is it face to face???) and I only needed 8 Healing Potions an no trip back to town.
Only interesting item was a failed unique Horned Helm with triple skills:
Code:Stone Visor Horned Helm Defense: 35 Durability: 117 of 135 Required Level: 18 Required Strength: 45 Fingerprint: 0xb19582fb Item Level: 22 Version: Expansion 1.10+ +2 to Iron Skin (Barbarian Only) +2 to Shout (Barbarian Only) +3 to Sword Mastery (Barbarian Only) +13% Enhanced Defense +5 to Energy Cold Resist +10%
I completed Act II at level 23 again. Crushflange will make this game so much easier if I am ever able to use it. And right now I have some nice options to choose my equipment from. For now though, the next scroll I got was...
# 54 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20)
Again? honestly? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining...but another skill tree or being able to equip unique items or merc would have been more to my liking...But it is probably the 4th or 5th best roll I could make. How many of those skill scrolls are there anyhow??
So here's my current set of learned scrolls:
Code:1 You can place attributes points in STRENGTH or DEXTERITY attr Ability 2 2 You can place attributes points in VITALITY or ENERGY attr Ability 2 4 You can equip 1 magic item equip Ability 1 5 You can equip 1 rare item equip Ability 2 6 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, competent up to 10, Master up to 15, Divine up to 20) skill Ability 3 7 Initiation : pick 1 skill tree (per character) : You can put only 1 pt in any skill from that tree, and use it skill Ability 2 34 You can equip any magic ring equip Ability 1 40 You can chose to pick 2 other Ability Scrolls or 5 Wisdom Token special Effect 1 61 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3 148 you can use any cube recipe involving no runes craft Ability 1 3 You can equip 1 set item equip Ability 2 26 You can equip 1 item with "Increased Attack speed" affixe equip Ability 6 141 You can equip any set boots equip Ability 2
That leaves me with the following scrolls and 5 WTs:
Code:18 You can equip any set belt equip Ability 2 60 You can equip any unique boots equip Ability 3 62 Mulligan : You can put back in the draw pool all your (unplayed) ability scroll in your hand and draw the same number of scroll minus 1 special Effect 3 81 You can equip any magic class specific item (orb, shrunken heads, pelts, barb helms, paladin shield, katars, amazon Bows, spears and javelins) equip Ability 1 128 You know all runeword recipe craft Ability 8 79 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3 54 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3
I already started Act II with my Druid, and now that I unlocked Dire Wolf at level 18 I hope for faster progress than before! Good luck to everyone!
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@Chaostar , I don't think you are doing any worse than I am. Some of it does depend on the scrolls you manage to roll/unlock too. I am impressed with @Grisu keeping those rogues alive as well!
I would say the tourney is a challenge though and there are a few things I find frustrating. One of them is the advancement plateaus you hit once you have improved a skill and have your 2 or 3 unlocked magic gear spots filled. Just knowing the character isn't going to really advance any for some time as the going gets tougher. Another is not switching chars until the prior one completed the act.
There have been a few real slogs in some spots. I fear for Grisu's Druid. Not that it will die, he seems to play quite safely, but that he will grind to a halt on advancement with a summoner. Those take top end runewords to kill at any reasonable pace
Grisu said:
Nice progress @Grisu, you really do make it look easy!
I have my fingers crossed for a good scroll on my next session.
I was hoping to share a completion write-up for my assasin tonight, but tonight's session ended with her having cleared everything but the real tomb and Duriel (this character really is slow to progress, and that's compared to a holy freeze paladin without a combat skill!). She is a sliver short of level 23, so I am far away from unlocking lightning sentry for the boss fight as I had hoped.
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Finally done with the assassin. I'll keep this write-up short (Edit: Well, I intended to before I started writing anyway /E). Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I want to wrap her up quickly because she's taken up far too many gaming sessions already
I ended my Paladin write-up by using by second skill improvement scroll and pondering who would benefit from having 10 points in a skill the most. Envya the assassin still hasn't improved any of her trap skills to even tier 1 after completing act 2
As I think I've mentioned before, I was happily surprised early on that my level 1 WoF worked pretty well at the start of act 2.
She's quite fragile though, and gameplay is more or less drop traps -> run in circles. Early on she still brawled a bit with a scepter, but by the end of the act she gave that up and equipped a plain schimitar for the fast trap lay speed. From that point on I have very few screenshots because gameplay was taking so much focus
She bought magic MF gloves right away to fill her magic slot. She then tried to get lucky at Elxiz like her lucky sibling, the paladin. She had to sink more time and money into it and the rewards were far worse, but she did end up wit ha pair of MF boots eventually.
Unfortunately no set items found by her and no other drops that tempred me to invest any of my other equip scrolls, so that was pretty much her gear, along with whatever the highest derfence normal items she found. As far as drops go she did not find basically anything noteworthy, and no S&U's apart from a little parting gift from Duriel.
Late in the desert areas the level 1 WoF started to feel a little weak, and once she reached the cellar it became commonplace to have to expend the full barrage from all 5 traps to kill more or less anything. I made a special note of Fire Eye which was barely tickled by the fire damage. Ended up taking him down with scepter smacks and level 1 charged bolt sentry (or whatever it's called).
Arcane sanctum was smooth sailing, and traps allowed me to take out the summoner without any backfire. Then the canyon and the fake tombs. At this point I realized that I would not be able to reach lvl 24 as "planned". I still decided to clear all tombs for exp. This took a long time!!!
Only have 1 screenie from the tombs which I forgot why I snapped in the first place. I still wanted to share it because it's stupid stuff like taking screenshots while being poisoned at 1 life that will eventually get my characters killed. *Cue dark projectile incoming from behind a pillar*
So today I had only the real tomb left. Since I was a bit tired of the tombs with her weak fire traps, I didnt clear the whole real tomb out and went for Duriel once I had found his chamber.
The Fight was nothing to write home about. As long as she kept moving it was sorta safe. Of course his hits still hurt, but he missed a lot while she was running away and she only drank maybe 3 or 4 rejuvs.
HOWEVER, after having gotten his hp down to about half, I had to go to town to refill my potion stack, but instead accidentally hit escape and then save&exit (damn you pindle/LK reflexes?)
So I had to restart the Duriel fight. Since I was a bit annoyed, I forgot to feed her thawing potions before round 2. His attacks hurt considerably more and I had a real close NDE, reading 25 life remaining at lowest at one pointLuckily she made it back safely to town after realizing her mistake, and from there it went smoothly again until he fell over from exhaustion from all the running and a little bit of fire damage.
I was afraid that he would take too little damage to ever finish the battle, but it turns out it was pretty fast, speaking in Duriel terms that is. I guess it's because her traps deal the damage and those aren't slowed or constantly interrupted by Duriels attacks, so they keep chipping away even if the per hit damage is poor.
I remember taking a screenshot, but it's not in the screenshot folder so you will have to do with a recreation of her great victory.
He dropped some unusable rares and a unique dirk. Nothing too useful but it's a good feeling to get some gold items dropped from act bosses!
Pretty cool that she made it without investing more than 1 point in any skill, but for my next character I don't think I can repeat that!
She was rewarded with scroll 75 - Skill improvement. Woot woot!.. Oh wait! I already had that and used it!
That seems pretty powerful and should be useful, though very WT-expensive. @Chaostar - It has a cost listed of 2WT, does that mean that it costs 2WT to be able to use the ability+ 3 WT for each scroll I want? So 8 WTs to gain 2 new ability scrolls?
I don't think I can/want to afford that right now anyway with only 10 unused WTs at the moment, but we'll see in the future.
Edit: While doing some inventory management post-Duriel, I found Arctic binding in her extended GoMule stash. That 40% cold resist sure would have been a nice boost vs Duriel, had I remembered that she'd found it
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Absolutely ! And I think it must be a verrrry powerful scroll too !zarfen said:
Gratz for the progress ! I still take thawing potions before Duriel, but I doubt it's really useful
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Thanks!Chaostar said:Absolutely ! And I think it must be a verrrry powerful scroll too !
Gratz for the progress ! I still take thawing potions before Duriel, but I doubt it's really useful
Oh I always drink lots of thawing potions before Duriel on all my characters when I remember to.
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@zarfen: best Duriel screenshot ever! *thumbsup*
Another Act III addition to the Addams family:
Pugsley, the Summoner Druid, made it to Act III.
He started out with one Spirit Wolf and Heart of the Oak and a measly superior Long Bow, which still was enough to face and defeat Radament:
After hitting level 18, I started pumping Dire Wolfs, and up until now (at /p1, mind you) they are killing machines. Gameplay is safe, fast and ...oh wait:
...tedious in some places
Another few gem shrines later I made this beuty for hopefully later use:
Also, this amulet is waiting for some nice ability scroll, so that I can finally use it:
I decided to fight Duriel before clearing all tombs, because i was afraid I might die anyways and then all time spent in the tombs would have been in vain. I thought my chances of
a) hitting level 24
b) finding better items
was too low anyways, so fight I did!
I only needed mana potions to keep recasting my dire wolfs. Every few seconds one dropped, but in the end the fight was easier than I expected and I was never in real danger.
Afterwards, I cleared the remaining tombs, were boss Mummies were a theme:
I actually DID hit level 24 - and then some more (see XP bar). No other noteworthy find though (a failed unique Hatchet Hands, but well...)
So will the scroll luck continue, you ask? Let's see...
#124 Can craft Safety items
well...I guess no. Especially since there are only 3 scrolls that let me equip crafted items xD We'll see how that turns out. Guess I should start cubing Emeralds though, just in case
Next up is either Amazon or Assassin, all other characters are already in Kurast.
Any input on skill distribution for those two are welcome by the way!
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Oh my, I never thought a summon dire wolf druid could make it, once again you kept your mercenary, dude you're so much better than me at this game !!
(Some of your screen doesnt work)
Nah, not better - I simply put way more time into HC tournaments than some (most?) - I was rellay surprised to hear, that one 99er only took ~3 times as long as one HC single pass full clear tournament character to guardian (~150 hours) of which I have a few. I lack the skills for dedicated levelling and rune hunting though. I am constantly amazed at how others spill out 99ers and high runes - apart from one lucky Cham and one lucky Jah (in a tournament) I consider myself a poor guy runewise (esp. since most my gaming was done pre 1.13, before the increased chance of rune drops)
Anyways, I appreciate your time reading my adventures - I used to do more detailed write-ups, but I hope it is OK like this, too
Keeping the merc alive is especially easy with summoners. The biggest problem will ba my Amazon: she is a ranged attacker herself, so even teleport-bugged, ranged enemies will probably target the Rogue often, because I am not on the front-line myself. And we all know how deadly boss pack archers can be
Although a dead Rogue won't be the end of it because we will get another shot at a free Mage merc in Act III - which will be much better in this tournament, because their damage is mostly independent from equipment. Of course, a cold one will be best, but there's only a 1 in 3 chance of that happening...
BTW, I went with my Assassin next and used the Dimoak's Hew (inherent IAS)
until I found an Isenhart's Lightbrand
in mid Act II. Now it's much safer (40% blocking) and dps is almost the same (or better, because I get more swings in before I get into a very slow hit recovery xD). That room was hellish btw: 8 Greater Mummies and lots of skeletons
Merc is doing fine so far, almost died to Fangskin though... Had to spam Gas potions, enter stairs, heal in town, head back down, spam gas potions, back through the stairs, repeat ad nauseam. The Palace is next... Fangskin did drop a unique Bladebkne though...
Oh, and I went for the cube first this time, in order to cube some full rejuvs, only then did I do the sewers. It's how I progress in other tournaments usually, because getting the cube and cube some savage Polearms is my main insurance normally. But without Act II merc and with the heavy item restrictions, it is not that important...
Hope to hear some updates from you guys soon!
EDIT: Added pictures. Linkt to pic of amulet in the post above should work now.
EDIT 2: in the rules you say:
This means, we may keep all items, but don't get any WTs or scrolls, right?
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Alright, I have some udate too.
Remember, my Barb and Paladin had all torments to beat Duriel, who took down my sorceress ?
So I decided to...
Ok, this is my 3rd and last try !
I decided to kill every single monster on this map and open every chest, smash every barrel.
I drop immediately a scepter, which will be used all along the act.
After killing The countess (at lvl 11), I used 2 of the 3 wisdom Points she dropped to learn Vitality basics. My life goes from 75 to 275 HP, it feels nice.
I found several nice items on my way, 2 of them from stash or barrels ! ... some may be used later
I didn't kill that one, his life regen was high, even with strangling gas potions, so I decided to come back to him in the end (I forgot, obviously)
I tried to keep my mercenary as long as possible, but she died to a pack of monsters in the cathedral. RIP.
Adariel was slained slowly, my life was never in danger.
Ths scroll she gave seems lame. I can go to act 2 at lvl 16.
143 : You can equip any magic helm
Empyrium (Parladin)
I dropped a (cracked) scepter pretty soon too, allowing me to clean every area without trouble.
Blood raven was taken down easily with a pack of javelins.
In the Countess tower, I dropped a unique item, and a regular scepter.
Countess down, 3 more WT to activate once again scroll 1 and 7
Things gets tougher in the jail, as usual. Harder to kill foes, I used to have a full inventory of potions, now I pick every pot I drop, not a good sign. I relied more and more on strangling gas potions, but I don't have a lot of these.
In the catacomb, I decided I had to do something, after facing a spider with stone skin I could not kill
I finally shopped that scepter. This time I'll unlock the Offensive aura tree in first, zeal will miss, but face to Duriel, it will be more efficient like that.
The spider was down in a few blows.
From now, everything was fine. Even Andariel was slained without any trouble, at lbl 16 again.
And, there, I hit the grail, I already hitted on my 1st attempt but didn't realize it at that moment :
91 : You can hire / resurect / heal a mercerary and equip him following your characters abilities
That scroll is amazing
@Chaostar: That is some determination you're showing! Good luck for your 3rd try! I envy you your ability scroll
Morticia, the Phoenix Striker to be, reached the Kurast Docks at level 23.
My lucky streak seems to have ended - but first things first:
Fighting boss packs in the Arcane Sanctuary can be easy sometimes:
The Arcane Sanctuary all in all was easy, although those ghosts have the annoying ability to somehow dodge the gas potions, so I had to be careful not to get caught up in packs of ghosts.
If you look carefully, you will notice a very important change in the next screenshot:
No, I don't mena the 2nd choking gas potion that dropped (although that was ab blessing, because I had to be extra careful not to use my last potion in fights or I wouldn't have been able to sell and buy them back).
I mean, that my merc died
Greater Mummies were the theme for Morticia - there were 3 rooms in the tombs with at least 8 Greater Mummies each (plus other undead) and a total of 3 champion packs of those. With a single target attack and no skill to fall back to, I switched my MF boots out for this magical circlet, which allowed me to kill monsters and esp. Greater Mummies more quickly. Otherwise, my journey would have been much more dangerous.
This screenshot was done just before my fight against Duriel, that's why I have a claw equipped:
Although I used Isenhart's Lightbrand for all other purposes, I decided to forgo my MF gloves and instead equip those gambled claws against Duriel for two reasons: More damage and the possibility to use Claws of Thunder level 1.
Duriel was tough to beat. Somehow, I whiffed a lot besides 83% cth...I tried to always use the level 1 Claws of Thunder for the additional Lightning damage, but i had to go back to town 13 times to escape death or refill my belt. I needed 5 Full Rejuvs in the process and drank 25 Thawing potions
Finally, and 2 NDEs late:
No good drops however, besides a failed set scale Mail
Now of course I wanted to match @Chaostar 's luck, so behold!
#134 You can equip 1 more charm
Doh...well, I can't be lucky all the time, now can I?
Now only Wednesday, the Bowazon is left - here's her LCS after using the Set Belt scroll (to be able to equip Arctic Furs and Arctic Binding) and dressing up for Act II:
Now I hope for a good bow (currently using a gambled rare one with IAS) and some ideas on how to beat Durielmaybe I will need to choose Exploding Arrow as an apprentice skill after all.
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@Grisu nicely done! Only one char left in act 2, you’re pulling ahead
Also, I guess I should consider gambling some circlets on my weapon based chars because that’s a nice damage boost for sure!
I have left for Christmas celebration at the in-laws and then New Years with my parents, so no further progress from me for a couple weeks, in the new year(and new decade!)
Thanks guys !
I had 3 chances out of 148 to pick this scroll, but I already had one one my first try, didn't prevent me to die like an idiot
@CaseyJones, yep, probably too cheap and too rare (only 3 samples), didn't realize how eager I would be about this when I wrote the scroll list.
GG @Grisu, another death for Duriel. 13 back to town, it's not THAT much
About the arcazon, don't know what you can do, honestly. I know you'll find something
enjoy your time off, @zarfen !
@zarfen: yeah, gambling circlets is a real treat...granted, most are garbage, but the mods that can spawn are simply amazing for that level. Also, foolish me could have used the Horadric Staff up until Duriel, because of the iherent 50% IAS - would have made my life much easier xD
@Chaostar: Well, I decided to stick with my plan (reach level 24 before Duriel) - it went well for my Amazon:
Wednesday, the Magezon, reached Kurast Docks at level 24!
She found her first set ring during her journey - unfortunately Cathan's, not Angelig though. And since I was already using Arctic Furs and Binding, no ability left for me to equip it...
On the journey went, and the bow sisters were mowing down LE monsters by the dozen...
With Wednesday, I DID switch to the Horadric Staff for fights for some time, because it did more damage than my bow. It was the right choice I suppose??? (although no IAS on Gull, so I am not allowed to use it...)
I switched back and forth between the staff, my rare bow (esp. for beetles and LE monsters, but also Greater Mummies - their attacks were quite devastating) and Choking gas potions (for large mobs). Ice Arrow proved to be important in the tombs, because it allowed me to shatter undead corpses, so that they couldn't be raised again bei Greater Mummies. Oh, and I had some of those again...but this time, I managed to both stay alive myself and keep my merc alive (mainly because of Ice Arrow and shattered corpses). This is what the aftermath of one such Champion boss pack Greater Mummies plus a few other Greater Mummies looks like. Had to use one Full Rejuv to avoid certain death, and I made it (if barely)
Ice Arrow was also important for the odd Stone Skin boss pack:
After finding Hsaru's Iron Heel I gambled for rare gloves, because at that time I had a magical MF circlet, rare MF boots and Arctic Binding and Furs plus a rare (IAS) bow. My thinking was to get good rare MF gloves and switch out the rare boots for set boots, giving me one more useful equipment (I used white gloves so far). I didn't expect them to be so good (well, more resists would have been great, but I'm not complaining
Now if I only was able to hit level 24 before facing Duriel...
With Immolation Arrow and 85% Cold Resistance, things couldn't be too bad against Duriel - and I was right.
Duriel did almost no significant damage, and all I needed were 3 Healing Potions and 2 Mana potions. I think that this was the easiest fight among all characters so far...
Only failed sets and uniques though...the usual.
Now, for all these endeavours one might think I earned a good scroll, right?
/drumroll
#48 Resurrection : You can resurrect one of your character immediately after his death, in town, with all his stuff and abilities. He carries on his journey from the place of his death.
well, playing HC has its flaws, I guess...on the bright side: I accumulate more and more useless scroll to ditch to my mulligan ability scroll
Scroll Overview:
Code:1 You can place attributes points in STRENGTH or DEXTERITY attr Ability 2 2 You can place attributes points in VITALITY or ENERGY attr Ability 2 4 You can equip 1 magic item equip Ability 1 5 You can equip 1 rare item equip Ability 2 6 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, competent up to 10, Master up to 15, Divine up to 20) skill Ability 3 7 Initiation : pick 1 skill tree (per character) : You can put only 1 pt in any skill from that tree, and use it skill Ability 2 34 You can equip any magic ring equip Ability 1 40 You can chose to pick 2 other Ability Scrolls or 5 Wisdom Token special Effect 1 61 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3 148 you can use any cube recipe involving no runes craft Ability 1 3 You can equip 1 set item equip Ability 2 26 You can equip 1 item with "Increased Attack speed" affixe equip Ability 6 141 You can equip any set boots equip Ability 2 18 You can equip any set belt equip Ability 2
That leaves me with the following scrolls and 12 WTs:
Code:60 You can equip any unique boots equip Ability 3 62 Mulligan : You can put back in the draw pool all your (unplayed) ability scroll in your hand and draw the same number of scroll minus 1 special Effect 3 81 You can equip any magic class specific item (orb, shrunken heads, pelts, barb helms, paladin shield, katars, amazon Bows, spears and javelins) equip Ability 1 128 You know all runeword recipe craft Ability 8 79 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3 54 Skill improvement : Pick 1 skill (per character) you already have 1 pt invested : improve your knowledge of that skill by 1 tier (Apprentice : invest up to 5 skill points, Efficient up to 10, Skilled up to 15, Master up to 20) skill Ability 3 124 Can craft Safety items craft Ability 2 134 You can equip 1 more charm charm Ability 1 48 Resurrection : You can resurrect one of your character immediately after his death, in town, with all his stuff and abilities. He carries on his journey from the place of his death. special Effect 28
Now let's see what Act III brings for my family - well, probably 7 new mercs (Iron Wolves for the win!)...
Thanks for reading!
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