excellent long reports ! I wish I could write like this !
You're confident to face Duriel with your pal with no rejuv ! You could have farm a little to get few, and unlock holy shield in the same time, you lazy boy
Great progress ! Access to the /players command can be very helpful at the beginning, to face Duriel at a decent level.
Big update here !!!
Absu (Assassin)
My starting claw is very efficient in early levels. Strangling gas potions can deal perfectly with tough monsters, like coldcrow and her arrows.
It works well with Blood raven too !
I decided to use my last WT to unlock to mercenary scroll I own. I want to keep that rogue with me.
With a mercenary, and the rare katar I dropped, I was able to finish all the act with the only normal attack skill.
Found a unique item on the way
Andariel was easily defeated, at lvl 16 once again.
So I cas go to act2, without picking yet any skill tree
Draw this scroll
56 : You can equip 1 item with "+x to all skills" affixe
which is Killer !!!
Tormentor (Druid)
Tormentor will be specialized in elemental fire skills.
I found soon arctic furs, I figured out it was the good time to activate the scroll alowing me to use 1 set item.
It 's really fun to cast Molten boulders among large packs of carver.
1 grailer :
Fissure was even more powerful, and the end of the act was a joke, I was even surprised how Andariel died fast
Scroll picked :
18 : You can equip any set belt
Dodheimsgard (Necro)
In the den of evil, I found 2 nice rare gears, I equipped the hand axe immediately
Simple attack with this weapon is enough to kill everything in first maps.
After killing blood raven, I gained a companion.
In the cave, I dropped Arctic furs, can equip it rightaway !
Coldcrow way easily slained with strangling gas potions.
I made all my way to the monastery with my axe, and everything was fine, I felt like a barbarian !
But soon, i started to take more and more damage, my chance to hit dropped slowly, and I met more and more tough situations. I had to do something and chose my way.
So I chose the poison & bones branch, and stuck 5 points in teeth.
I can now clean a room with teeth, and make some final moves with my axe.
That was how I killed Andariel, just had to get 2 times in town to resurrect Claudia and refill my belt.
Picked this scroll
116 : Family trade : you can get items from your other characters' mule
I don't plan to use it, unless wonderful drop somewhere, so I'm a bit disappointed.
That is the end of act 1, 7 chars at lvl 16 made it to act 2, with full map clear
Everyone found at least 1 set/unique item.
I activated these scrolls :
You can place attributes points in STRENGTH or DEXTERITY
You can place attributes points in VITALITY or ENERGY
You can equip 1 set item
You can equip 1 rare item
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)
Initiation : pick 1 skill tree (per character) : You can put only 1 pt in any skill from that tree, and use it
You can hire / resurect / heal a mercerary and equip him following your characters abilities
I have 7 Wisdom Tokens left, and these scrolls in stash :
You can equip 1 magic item
You can equip any magic helm
Second chance : Chose one of your characters : each time he gets (only) one Ability Scroll by finishing an Act, you can use once 1 WP to redraw the scroll (discarded scroll gets back into the draw pool)
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
You can equip 1 item with "+x to all skills" affixe
You can equip any set belt
Family trade : you can get items from your other characters' mule
Let's face Duriel ! Again !
Starting act 2 with Empyrium (Paladin) :
First, I Hire a mercenary with a Blessed Aim aura.
I cleaned some area, waiting for items to upgrade my equipments, now I can equip 1 rare and 1 set item.
I saw a +3 holy freeze scepter, but it was way too expensive for me.
A nagelring dropped in the room where the horadric cube was waiting. !!
Finally, I found a +3 holy freeze scepter I could afford. I gave a lot of money !!!
Radament was slained, the staff retrieved with no difficulty.
I bought a bone shield of deflecting, even if I can't equip yet, it may serve later…
Fangskin was the real first test for Empyrium, and it was a joke. I feel really powerful, right now.
I decided to activate the scroll to equip 1 magic item, and wear the Bone shield of deflecting, to gain even more block, on the other hand I lose 10@resist.
I was at lvl 22 when I entered the canyon of the magi. I p^lanned to clean every tomb to gain max xp, and find some gears for me of my mercenary.
I still deal good damage, but I have to drink health potions quite often. I had a tough situation with a room full of scarabs and other creatures, by chance I had a LOT of rejuv in stock this time.
I found a good gear for my mercenary, Duriel will appreciate the curse, even if it doesn't trigger very often.
I was almost lvl 24 when I cleared everything, and Duriel was the only monster left… So I had to go, with 324 HP and more than 30 rejuv in stock !
Duriel fight was quite easy, because I could stand in front of him a regenerate life faster than he touched me. I get back to town to resurect my mercenary a few times, because he did deal great damage.
And after 3 minutes maybe, that was done, and this was a relief !!
The rondache dropped is pretty nice.
Got scroll # 61 : skill improvement. Good news.
Mayhem - Act 2
First, I can hire a mercenary, and equip some items from my stash according to new Family abilities.
I thing I'll go for the whirlwind path, meaning I'll use lvl 1 skills for a long time.
So, I hire an offensive paladin and gave him some stuff.
I equipped arctic belt, a rare studded leather armor, and unlock combat skill tree.
I bought later a nice magic gear.
With this weapon and concentrate lvl 1, I can go through the desert, carefully, but safe enough, even if I have to drink a lot of red and blue potions.
In crowded rooms, choking gas potions are wonderful weapons
The invocator was erradicated.
Then I cleaned every Tal Rasha Tomb.
Beside a unique belt, I found nothing interresting.
I was lvl 23, and 2 tombs remaining, when I decided to give Duriel a try. I saved a skill shrine from the canyon for the occasion.
The fight was really easy : Duriel ignored my mercenary, he could stab him in the back.
I dealt damage too, and was able te replenish life fast enough.
I didn't need to go back to town once.
Once the 2 remaining tombs were cleared, I moved to act 3.
Pick that scroll :
59 : Family groth : if you have at least 1 dead character, you can create a new character from any class : he must catch up with the rest of the family immediately. He starts with all family abilities, and get every quest reward. The dead character is replaced by the new one for the tournament final score calculation, even the 8th character dies sooner than the replaced character. This scroll can only be used one time.
Really not helpful right now
@Chaostar: Does the wording of scroll #59 mean, that the new character will get new WT and new ability scrolls for every Act? Nice going so far!
Big update for me myself:
Chose to go 2nd with my Necromancer, because he's the easiest character (tied with my HF Paladin) by far.
2) Gomez the Necromancer reached the Pandaemonium Fortress
As you might remember, I chose Raise Skeleton to level up to 10. In the meantime, I gained access to three more ability skill scrolls, which allowed me to raise Raise Skeleton (heh - raise raise) to level 20 and Skeleton Mastery to 5. A shame is, that I totally forgot to put one point in Summon Resist once it opened up
Anyways, this is what my army fighting Might aura Hulks looks like:
Noteable finds:
- The Centurion
- Sander's Taboo
- Rancid Gas Potion (96 damage FTW!)
- failed unique Poleaxe with PMH
- first exceptional weapon drop: ethereal magical vicious cudgel
Stair traps are a joke with 11 (+1 Mage) buddies shielding me:
Against Mephisto, not even one Skeleton dropped (besides missing the Summon Resist skill as mentioned above...) and he went down in a few seconds:
On the Scroll draw I rolled a
#84 You can equip any magic amulet
which I promptly acitivated, because it allowed me to equip my MF amulets on all characters. GG!
As one might expect, gameplay was not exciting, but still it is fun to let your army mow down everything in their path. Watched some movies alongside playing...
Next went
3) Pugsley, the Summoner Druid
Well, I expected him to be much slower than my necro, but he actually managed quite a passable speed while being quite safe. The damage of wolves is less than those of my skeletons, but was always enough. I used Heart of the Wolverine for additional damage boost, because I didn't need the additional life ofHeart of the OakOak Sage (why the inconsistency in naming, Blizzard!?) - yet (?).
The vine was mostly used to stop regeneration/apply some additional points of damage. I kept firing my bow, which actually did matter sometimes!!!killing machinedude who actually did contribute to monsters dying.
Neither Fana Hulks
nor Might Council
nor Mephistio could touch me.
I told you: Summoner builds rock - at /p1 especially.
The reward scroll was actually quite nice compared to the danger I put myself into:
#105 You can use your Wisdom Token to get extra ability scroll in town at the cost of 3 WT by card (once only, 10 scrolls max.)
well, I only have to accumulate 32 WTs and voilà! There should be something in it. And if not, I can then use my mulligan to draw a bazillion new scrolls! Yay! Now I only need to finish Normal with what I have...
Then I went next with
4) Lurch, the Barbarian:
That one could have been tough, if it wasn't for this sick early gamble:
Wraith Brow
Circlet
Defense: 23
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 19
Fingerprint: 0x44689164
Item Level: 24
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 90 Lightning Damage
Adds 50 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
+37 to Life
Fire Resist +37%
Damage Reduced by 3
+5 to Mana after each Kill
Ohlololololol! I was like: you can't be serious! ilvl 24 and those mods! Had to do some re-equipping (ditch rare MF gloves for example), but those stats made well up the loss of MF. The +5 Mpk were great, because I usually one- or two-shot monsters, which means I never ran out of mana while using Concentrate on normal boss mobs.
So, entering the Jungle with 62% Fire Resistance and some 60-180 damage on swing was preeeeetty neat, as you might imagine. I am especially proud to protect Elly from all perils:
LE Hulks...
LE Shamans...
Holy Shock Rangers...
Conviction LE Council...
...NOT!
*sigh* Would have been too much to ask, now would it?
Besides losing my beloved Elly, nothing special happened and gameplay was mostly easy (barring the Holy Shock rangers, that cost me one Full Rejuv and one NDE, and the Conviction Council...)
Only Cathan's Mesh for me as a S/U, and Mephisto didn't drop anything exciting either:
It took two trips to town to restock on potions (well, no wonder, Arctic Binding only allows for 8 potions). But I never came close to dying in the boss fight.
I'm still undecided on who to best build this character. I still regret that I have chosen Combat Skills instead of War Cries, but the harm is done and now we will see. I stayed away from Frenzy so far, because it seems much less safe and right now I need the partial set bonuses (+AR) from Hsaru's boots and shield (I couldn't use a shield with Frenzy...)
After losing Elly, I might as well get a good scroll, right?
#36 You can equip 2 more grand charms
NOT!
Well, I still have my mulligan...thanks for reading!
Nice progress Grisu ! OMG that Circlet !!!
You're right about the 8th Character scroll, it allows you to add a 8th char to your family (unless no one died), and this char gets all WT and scroll like the other did, and starts obviously with all the family ability, so yes, I may be rewarding to use that scroll.
About scroll 105 (#105 You can use your Wisdom Token to get extra ability scroll in town at the cost of 3 WT by card (once only, 10 scrolls max.) ) now I imagine this in action, it seems it can be really overpowered
Anyway, I think with this kind of scroll, even with 1 or 2 dead character on the way, it would be possible to pick all scrolls from the pool... we 'll see
Well, I assumed it was chosen randomly...otherwise it would be way overpowered, I guess?CaseyJones said:
I currently have 17 spare WTs (Amazon just killed Stormtree). If everyone finishes Act III/Stormtree, then it's already 23. I suppose everyone will at least kill Hephasto - Diablo is a different story
And another one safely in the Pandaemonium Fortress!
Wednesday, the Immolation Arrow Bowazon, beat Mephisto!
I was so thankful for both level ups, because at level 1, IA really didn't do much and gameplay was quite tedious, because it took like 6+ arrows per monster to kill it...I relied heavily on Gas potions and starting skill level 2 on IA. At level 3, it finally did so much damage, that most monsters only survived 2 hits.
There were no NDEs as far as I remember, as ranged characters usually play out pretty safe. See this example:
All the flayers lined up lemming-like, because they couldn't reach me with their ranged attack, but were trying to get closer. That allowed me to pick out and kill one after the other, causing them to immediately moving forward in line so that I could shoot down the next one
I always love uniqe shamans, because it means double the treasure
Another interesting find was, that you can easily take down Icehawk and his pack from afar with Choking Gas potions. That won't trigger their aggro AI and they will fall poisoned and dead from the ceiling one after another...
Phew, finally cleared the whole Sewers...
The council was surprisingly easy and Bremm NOT with a conviction aura for a change, which allowed me to keep my merc alive.
Good for me that there was a Combat Shrine right before Mephisto...
..which I ultimately forgot to activate for the boss fight
but one Full Rejuv and one potion restock later:
Notable S/U finds were:
- another Berseker's Hatchet
- Sigon's Guard
- Sparking Mail
- Gleglaw's Claw
May scroll roll:
# 53 You can equip any charm with all resistance (6 WTs)
Well, not what I was hoping for...
That leaves my Firewall sorceress and my Phoenix Striker to be for Act III. Next up:
Grandmama, the Sorceress
Poor Grisu, I was looking for the mercenary scroll...
Good tip for the bat in the sewers !
Anathema 2N
Upgrade equipment : put on Arctic furs, bought a 3 rows belt and a bone shield, but I need a little more strength to wear those.
Also I hired a paladin mercenary.
I dropped a +1 frost nova orb. I gave frost nova a try, I never did, I guess. But it's not really great, actually.
Lvl 18 brought Glacial spike, which is a very good thing, because since I left my +skill staff, I had trouble to kill fast with my lvl 1 spells.
When I reached lvl 19, I decided to upgrade Glacial Spike, for more damage.
I found a nice orb in the ancient tunnels, even if I can't use the +skills mods, the others are quite good. And I didn't wear any rare item yet…
Arctic belt in a rat's nest, in the sewer. Too bad I can't equip 2 sets !
Everything went well... I found another nice orb cleaning false Tal Rasha's Tombs, plenty of resists !
Duriel was slained without trouble, I spammed Glacial spikes on him while he tried to kill my mercenary. I returned to town 3 times to resurrect him, and it was done !
I pick another skill improvement scroll :
75 : 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)
Wilderun 2N
After the usual update of equipment and hiring a mercenary, I started by the sewers.
I found a grailer, and slained Radament. After that, search for the cube, cleaning everything on the road.
I decided to activate an upgrade skill scroll, and set Charged Strike to apprentice too.
I found a Nagelring on a worm when seraching for The Staff of kings.
Charged Strike is really powerful. With only a few points invested, I kill almost every monster in one blow, even some super uniques.
The downside is it's not a ranged attack, and every blow I take cuts down hard in my life bubble.
Pack of beetles, or some cursed boss made me sweat sometimes.
I have to and drink healing pots, but so far, it's fine.
I was already lvl 23 with 3 fake tomb left, when I decided to meet Duriel.
Fight was fast, I dealt a lot of damage, even at fozen speed. Just 1 pit stop to refill my belt (I took no risk at all) at it was over.
I cleaned the 3 remaining tombs, and I'm glad I did, I frop hotspurs on a rack
Also, I reached lvl 24 in the last tomb.
I picked scroll 23 : another skill improvement !
I'm amazed by the difference between those act2 sessions and the previous one, where Duriel was a Nightmare. The mercerany makes a Huge difference.
@Chaostar: That Ancient Kaa pic is terrifying - you didn't lure out the Blunderbores first?!?!??
Meanwhile, Grandmama the Sorceress beat Mephisto
She tops the list of NDEs in this tournament among my characters, that's why her stock of Full Rejuvs is the lowest (currently 7 or so). Really, I don't know why I always loved to play Sorceresses so much - compared to the other characters she is a glass cannon, and without a merc as a meatshield she is just so fragile...
Anyways, at least she was lucky considering her S/U finds (or not, because I cannot wear any of them):
- Angelic Mantle
- 2nd Angelic Mantle
- Arctic Horn
- Berserker's Hatchet
- Cleglaw's Tooth (and I already have Cleglaw's Claw! If I was able to use both, that would be some insane early melee damage...)
- Isenhart's Case
Brief recap of her journey:
First tough superunique to beat - with only Fire skills and almost no fire resistance, this guy was scary as hell and I was relying entirely on my merc to bring him down, which took ages. To be safe of resurrections, i killed all minions, then ran away as far as I could (which makes corpses disappear) and came back to fight him.
The most annoying thing in Act III is clearing the sewers, but I did it yet again. Seriously though, couldn't Blizzard have made the level less maze-like???
This was one of my NDEs - CE Archers, that attack my teleport-bugged merc? Holy moly, I was lucky that I already killed some of the boss pack from around the corner with dropping Meteors...
Standing amidst Hydras to kill the council with Firewall? Don't try this at home, kids! gave me another NDE, although it did manage the job of killing the Council...
What a nice amulet this could have been if it was +1 Fire Skills...
Finally Mephisto - I managed to pull off ye good ol' moat trick without teleport - the trick is to lure Mephisto down to the stairs (where his corpse is in the picture), get to the other side without him following, then retreat just that far, that you can only see his "feet". This will cause him to stay on the steps and move from left to right without attacking, while you can spam Firewalls on top of him.
Thoughts on playstyle:
While still in the Spider Forest, I decided to spend one point in Meteor, because Firewall is annoying as hell to place correctly if you don't have a melee merc keeping your foes in place. It means, that I would have to fill that roll - without resists, FHR and with 250 life this seems like a bad idea...also, FW is just soooo mana hungry.
Also, I switched to my +3FB staff, because FW at level 5 was doing enough damage, but the extra 3 levels in FB made quite some difference for gameplay. My gamepace quickened noticeably afterwards. I am still hoping for another skill tree, so that I may finally choose FO as my main skill. Of course, the merc scroll would also be welcome as an alternative, because it lets me use FW more effectively.
So no wonder my scroll roll was
#100 You can equip any set class specific item (orb, shrunken heads, pelts, barb helms, paladin shield, katars, amazon Bows, spears and javelins)
Wow, that has to be some of the most disappointing scrolls to get at this game state. ..not only, that set class items are ultra rare and most are elite, no, IF you finally find one, it has to be of your class, too, because otherwise it is worth nothing! And then it costs 6 WTs! That one is going in the mulligan bin for sure...
oh well, one more try before I start Act IV.
Wow, what a rollercoaster ride that was with Morticia!
She actually did manage to defeat Mephisto, but man, took that long. If Act III had a journey name, it would be "Morticia beating Act III - or how Rancid Gas Potions rid Kurast of evil"
The pictures are a bit mixed up, but you get the point, I guess
Those gas potions are especially useful against LE monsters (doesn't trigger LE) and against semi-stationary monsters, because poisoning won't trigger their aggro AI (but their flee AI if their health gets too low). So lots of time I spent running around, throwing potions, going back to town to restock for 5000 gold, pickung up all valuable items to get gold to restock again.
Up until the Flayer Jungle I mostly used a bow - after one of those shamans dropped me from full health to 20% with one cast of Inferno, I was to frightened to ever go into melee range again. Lucky for me, that Morticia still has the 16-59 fire damage circlet
because that actually let her kill things with the bow. Decent dexterity (around 55) even gave enough AR.Code:Fiery Circlet of Pacing Circlet Defense: 30 Durability: 30 of 35 Required Level: 18 Fingerprint: 0x81660b2b Item Level: 24 Version: Expansion 1.10+ +10% Faster Run/Walk Adds 16 - 59 Fire Damage
That took way too long though with all those Flayers and what not, so I switched to Choking and later Rancid Gas Potions.
She had some bad luck regarding her S/U drops:
You can also see some stair traps in the pictures above, but none were really dangerous. Until that stair trap of course:
2 boss packs of spiders made things dicy, but because their attack AI doesn't trigger from too far away, only some minions approached, which I was able to fend off, and then I could again throw potion after potion from afar until everything was dead.
Mephisto...I really didn't dare to fight him toe to toe with almost no resists and 300 life. So, here's my variation of the moat trick:
Minutes later...
Gotta have some ammunition, just in case...
Still some minutes later...
Phew, took exactly 513 arrows to bring him down (so it probably only were 4-5 minutes, but it seemed longer).
I'm not sure how the Assassin will fare in Act IV - I hope, that Rancid Gas Potions still do enough damage
Now on to my roll for the ability scroll:
#113 You can equip 2 more small charm
Well, that's NOT gonna save Morticia in Act IV...so she will probably go last again and we'll see, if I can get an upgrade until then
Now I'm actually thrilled to see how Act IV goes for the Addams Familiy!
Thanks for reading!
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