Oh I see, now. I thought you meant that you wouldn't be using it until later on when you needed it more so just wanted to check
A Christmas gift to you - an old v1.09 Tale
- Thread starter jiansonz
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Fire Wall is enormously powerful, already at this stage. Check out this poor gang in Lost City. They're a good illustration of the phrase Sitting Duck:
View attachment 7263
Oops, that purple one was a Fire Enchanted Night Tiger boss. Oh well, just add another FW.
Dark Elder next. Fast enemies are always potential threats. Dark Elder is Extra Fast, but Plague Bearers are always slow, Extra Fast or not. There was plenty of space and no problems for Nudina:
View attachment 7264
I (the player) was now quite tired, but now only Claw Viper Temple remained this session. A pair of Claw Vipers assaulted Nudina when she took two steps into a dark room. She got chilled, terribly injured and serially Charged to here and there. She had to drink a full purple and teleport herself out of the room. Talk about a wake-up call! Nudina had pumped Vitality pretty hard lately, but without hit recovery bonus, half freeze or any such luxuries, she was still vulnerable and fragile. If she were to be surrounded, she probably wouldn't survive for many seconds.
I realized that you can actually listen for the snakes' hissing to check if any are close by.
Much better, here's how it's done:
View attachment 7265
Glacial Spike is great in these situations, because it does not leave any corpses from Bone Warriors (depriving the Guardians of resurrection fodder). It requires quite a lot of mana, but Nudina is good at collecting mana potions. She does not have much else to carry.
When she met smaller groups of Embalmed and Claw Vipers, she switched to her new spell: Chain Lightning. It deals 1-40 damage to up to five enemies, for 9 mana. I think it's most efficient when there are two enemies close together. Then one gets hit three times and the other two times. If there are more than five enemies lined up, Lightning is actually better.
It's time. The following text scares many Sorceresses:
View attachment 7266
Claw Viper Temple level two begins with a short hall that opens into a square room with an irregular, round and raised altar platform in the middle. It's very crowded and Fangskin's bosspack is there, sometimes with another boss/champion group of some kind. Sometimes there are Guardians (with their HORDES of Bone Warriors, 20+ is not uncommon). Sometimes the space is even more restricted by a bunch of urns on the floor. But the main difficulty is an Extra Fast boss group (of Salmanders, a pretty fast monster to begin with) in a crowded space. Angelina, my second character ever (and my first Sorceress) died her first death here, and she was fully dressed! This place is, simply put, a death trap for a frail Sorceress.
But look at the picture above; Nudina has the trump card above the head (remember?). Should Fangy get too close, she may now be able to survive by actually tanking Fangskin, casting Firewalls and do some quick rejuve drinking. However, this is a last resort.
Plan A looks like this:
* Advanced towards the altar, locate Fangskin's group.
* Glacial Spike on any enemies on the platform as long as she dares.
* Rush back to the stairs and Glacial Spike a few times on the pursuers.
* Up the stairs, Town Portal to refill potions and mana (and breathe a little).
* Go down, advance and teleport onto the (mostly) empty altar platform.
OK, here goes nothing.
No monster right by the stairs, good. No monster on the way to the platform and NO MONSTER on the platform.
(Teleport)
Yay!!
View attachment 7267
It was the lightest populated level 2 I've ever seen. In addition to Fangskin's group, there were only a few Claw Vipers and half a dozen Embalmed. From the top of the platform it was easy to slay the residents with Fire Walls. Because she had 75% lightning resist, Nudina did not have to ”dance” so carefully either to negotiate Fangskin's sparks. You can see how little damage she suffered here:
View attachment 7268
"Right at you, damn snake! This was for you too, Angelina."
View attachment 7263
Oops, that purple one was a Fire Enchanted Night Tiger boss. Oh well, just add another FW.
Dark Elder next. Fast enemies are always potential threats. Dark Elder is Extra Fast, but Plague Bearers are always slow, Extra Fast or not. There was plenty of space and no problems for Nudina:
View attachment 7264
I (the player) was now quite tired, but now only Claw Viper Temple remained this session. A pair of Claw Vipers assaulted Nudina when she took two steps into a dark room. She got chilled, terribly injured and serially Charged to here and there. She had to drink a full purple and teleport herself out of the room. Talk about a wake-up call! Nudina had pumped Vitality pretty hard lately, but without hit recovery bonus, half freeze or any such luxuries, she was still vulnerable and fragile. If she were to be surrounded, she probably wouldn't survive for many seconds.
I realized that you can actually listen for the snakes' hissing to check if any are close by.
Much better, here's how it's done:
View attachment 7265
Glacial Spike is great in these situations, because it does not leave any corpses from Bone Warriors (depriving the Guardians of resurrection fodder). It requires quite a lot of mana, but Nudina is good at collecting mana potions. She does not have much else to carry.
When she met smaller groups of Embalmed and Claw Vipers, she switched to her new spell: Chain Lightning. It deals 1-40 damage to up to five enemies, for 9 mana. I think it's most efficient when there are two enemies close together. Then one gets hit three times and the other two times. If there are more than five enemies lined up, Lightning is actually better.
It's time. The following text scares many Sorceresses:
View attachment 7266
Claw Viper Temple level two begins with a short hall that opens into a square room with an irregular, round and raised altar platform in the middle. It's very crowded and Fangskin's bosspack is there, sometimes with another boss/champion group of some kind. Sometimes there are Guardians (with their HORDES of Bone Warriors, 20+ is not uncommon). Sometimes the space is even more restricted by a bunch of urns on the floor. But the main difficulty is an Extra Fast boss group (of Salmanders, a pretty fast monster to begin with) in a crowded space. Angelina, my second character ever (and my first Sorceress) died her first death here, and she was fully dressed! This place is, simply put, a death trap for a frail Sorceress.
But look at the picture above; Nudina has the trump card above the head (remember?). Should Fangy get too close, she may now be able to survive by actually tanking Fangskin, casting Firewalls and do some quick rejuve drinking. However, this is a last resort.
Plan A looks like this:
* Advanced towards the altar, locate Fangskin's group.
* Glacial Spike on any enemies on the platform as long as she dares.
* Rush back to the stairs and Glacial Spike a few times on the pursuers.
* Up the stairs, Town Portal to refill potions and mana (and breathe a little).
* Go down, advance and teleport onto the (mostly) empty altar platform.
OK, here goes nothing.
No monster right by the stairs, good. No monster on the way to the platform and NO MONSTER on the platform.
(Teleport)
Yay!!
View attachment 7267
It was the lightest populated level 2 I've ever seen. In addition to Fangskin's group, there were only a few Claw Vipers and half a dozen Embalmed. From the top of the platform it was easy to slay the residents with Fire Walls. Because she had 75% lightning resist, Nudina did not have to ”dance” so carefully either to negotiate Fangskin's sparks. You can see how little damage she suffered here:
View attachment 7268
"Right at you, damn snake! This was for you too, Angelina."
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Cool.
I usually avoid them. The few times I've used one have been against act bosses. And then only once, of course.
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
"Där fick du", is that the Swedish f word? I'm asking because it's spelled the same way in German
Nope, nothing that crude.
'Fick' is the past tense form of the verb 'få' (receive, get, be allowed to, etc.). "Där fick du!" is an expression that you can use to e.g. gloat vs. someone you defeated. So a more word-for-word translation in the case above would be "There you got it!" (the beating, that is)
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Back in Lut Gholein, it was time to clean up in Harem and Palace Cellar. Pretty smooth progress, but a few groups of Horror Archers forced Nudina to do some fast footwork while she cast Firewalls on them. On the last floor, Fire Eye waited:
View attachment 7277
Invaders have a weird movement pattern when they get injured, they switch between fleeing and attacking and often bounce around unpredictably. Nudina is actually in some danger in the image above. Four Eye bounces around here and there. Nudina has stupidly enough Shiver Armor on. One or two hits with it on Fire Eye will make him explode (Fire Enchanted) in his death explosion. Nudina would probably have survived it but it was an unnecessary risk.
Nudina had reached level 20 and then made a terrible discovery, the ace up her sleeve in the plan to deal with Duriel was out. It simply wasn't there. She had learned Charged Bolt, Lightning and Chain Lightning for one reason only (not that they (other than CB) haven't been useful so far, though): they are prerequisites for Energy Shield (an equivalent to D1's Mana Shield, albeit not as powerful). She will meet Duriel when she is level 22 and the plan was to have Energy Shield at level 3. What is the problem? Energy Shield is a level 24 skill, that's the problem!
jiansonz, what were you thinking? Major blunder. Nudina is based on a Sorceress I read about online (NakedBabe on purediablo.com). NakedBabe was played on the realms, and thus there were sometimes more players in her games, giving her a slightly higher level than Nudina has. Also, her player had been ”sandbagging” NakedBabe quite a bit out in the desert, that just occured to me now.
I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to compromise the rule of playing each area just once. I put Nudina's skill point on Glacial Spike instead.
Arcane Sanctuary is a cool place and Nudina got to experience Firewall herself, even though the ones cast by Ghoul Lords are pretty meek. It was sometimes pure Firewall battles:
View attachment 7278
Nudina sometimes used a technique I call "fire-freeze". Shoot Glacial Spike on an enemy (or a small group of enemies) and just when the GS hits, cast Firewall, then immediately another Glacial Spike. This keeps the enemy frozen in the fire. Efficient and safe. This is easy to do with precision if you have tied the two skills to different mouse buttons, as above. Although I don't undestand the physics behind it: the cold hurts, then the fire hurts when the enemy is frozen and finally the body shatters into ice cubes when the fire kills them. Say what?
The toughest opponents (at least when it came to killing them) in Arcane Sanctuary:
View attachment 7279
Nudina had to cast almost a whole mana bulb's worth of Firewalls to bring them down.
When Nudina approached The Summoner, she suddenly found herelf in a Firewall and her life diminished at an alarming rate. She backed off a few steps and drank. Then she painstakingly lured out all the lesser monsters from the Summoner's platform. She stayed on the move, thus avoiding the Firewalls and Glacial Spikes. When The Summoner was alone, she teleported herself to him and retaliated with the same stuff:
View attachment 7280
"Looks like my Firewall was better than yours..."
Nudina now had a long session ahead of her: Canyon of the Magic and Tal Rasha's seven tombs. In Hell, this is a huge task. I usually spend four hours here with a pretty strong character. Here in Normal, Nudina should be able to do it in less than two hours. The biggest difficulty is that there are plenty of bosspacks, often in fairly narrow spaces, and it is important to establish a foothold at each entrance.
<2017 note: The seven tombs is still one of my top 5 favourite parts of the game>
Canyon of the Magi first. Nudina discovered that Hell Slingers are one-shot kills for level 3 Glacial Spike:
View attachment 7281
"Species: Hell Slinger. Weapon: Javelin. Estimated remaining time to live: 0.07s"
As I wrote earlier, Firewall is powerful, even more with a Skill Shrine running. Check this out:
View attachment 7282
<2017 note: Google Translate, I love you! Apart from the prologue (that I translated 'from scratch') I've first run my swedish texts through Google Translate, then polished them afterwards. This is after one of my work colleagues said that GT has become much better lately at handling expressions and sentence structure. She's right, I guess, but there are still sentences that either make no sense at all, or end up having the exact opposite meaning than the swedish one I wrote, or sometimes the result is just damn funny! I now regret having deleted all of that so far – should have saved some of the 'best' ones. Will do so from now on.>
View attachment 7277
Invaders have a weird movement pattern when they get injured, they switch between fleeing and attacking and often bounce around unpredictably. Nudina is actually in some danger in the image above. Four Eye bounces around here and there. Nudina has stupidly enough Shiver Armor on. One or two hits with it on Fire Eye will make him explode (Fire Enchanted) in his death explosion. Nudina would probably have survived it but it was an unnecessary risk.
Nudina had reached level 20 and then made a terrible discovery, the ace up her sleeve in the plan to deal with Duriel was out. It simply wasn't there. She had learned Charged Bolt, Lightning and Chain Lightning for one reason only (not that they (other than CB) haven't been useful so far, though): they are prerequisites for Energy Shield (an equivalent to D1's Mana Shield, albeit not as powerful). She will meet Duriel when she is level 22 and the plan was to have Energy Shield at level 3. What is the problem? Energy Shield is a level 24 skill, that's the problem!
jiansonz, what were you thinking? Major blunder. Nudina is based on a Sorceress I read about online (NakedBabe on purediablo.com). NakedBabe was played on the realms, and thus there were sometimes more players in her games, giving her a slightly higher level than Nudina has. Also, her player had been ”sandbagging” NakedBabe quite a bit out in the desert, that just occured to me now.
I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to compromise the rule of playing each area just once. I put Nudina's skill point on Glacial Spike instead.
Arcane Sanctuary is a cool place and Nudina got to experience Firewall herself, even though the ones cast by Ghoul Lords are pretty meek. It was sometimes pure Firewall battles:
View attachment 7278
Nudina sometimes used a technique I call "fire-freeze". Shoot Glacial Spike on an enemy (or a small group of enemies) and just when the GS hits, cast Firewall, then immediately another Glacial Spike. This keeps the enemy frozen in the fire. Efficient and safe. This is easy to do with precision if you have tied the two skills to different mouse buttons, as above. Although I don't undestand the physics behind it: the cold hurts, then the fire hurts when the enemy is frozen and finally the body shatters into ice cubes when the fire kills them. Say what?
The toughest opponents (at least when it came to killing them) in Arcane Sanctuary:
View attachment 7279
Nudina had to cast almost a whole mana bulb's worth of Firewalls to bring them down.
When Nudina approached The Summoner, she suddenly found herelf in a Firewall and her life diminished at an alarming rate. She backed off a few steps and drank. Then she painstakingly lured out all the lesser monsters from the Summoner's platform. She stayed on the move, thus avoiding the Firewalls and Glacial Spikes. When The Summoner was alone, she teleported herself to him and retaliated with the same stuff:
View attachment 7280
"Looks like my Firewall was better than yours..."
Nudina now had a long session ahead of her: Canyon of the Magic and Tal Rasha's seven tombs. In Hell, this is a huge task. I usually spend four hours here with a pretty strong character. Here in Normal, Nudina should be able to do it in less than two hours. The biggest difficulty is that there are plenty of bosspacks, often in fairly narrow spaces, and it is important to establish a foothold at each entrance.
<2017 note: The seven tombs is still one of my top 5 favourite parts of the game>
Canyon of the Magi first. Nudina discovered that Hell Slingers are one-shot kills for level 3 Glacial Spike:
View attachment 7281
"Species: Hell Slinger. Weapon: Javelin. Estimated remaining time to live: 0.07s"
As I wrote earlier, Firewall is powerful, even more with a Skill Shrine running. Check this out:
View attachment 7282
<2017 note: Google Translate, I love you! Apart from the prologue (that I translated 'from scratch') I've first run my swedish texts through Google Translate, then polished them afterwards. This is after one of my work colleagues said that GT has become much better lately at handling expressions and sentence structure. She's right, I guess, but there are still sentences that either make no sense at all, or end up having the exact opposite meaning than the swedish one I wrote, or sometimes the result is just damn funny! I now regret having deleted all of that so far – should have saved some of the 'best' ones. Will do so from now on.>
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Hmm, this seems to be a big tomb. Must be Kaa's. Correct, he eventually showed up:
View attachment 7283
In Classic D2 he was much worse. Instead of Mana Burn, he was Magic Resistant (75%), thus requiring about four times as many hits from elemental attacks as now. As the battle played out, it hadn't mattered much. Kaa has rarely been so humiliated:
View attachment 7284
Where Nudina was standing, she was safe from the bolts.
With just a little bit of the true tomb left, Nudina hired an assistant, Durga:
View attachment 7285
Durga had Defiance Aura. I hoped it would improve his defense rating so that Duriel would miss a little more than usual. I didn't want Durga to only be cannon fodder, so he was allowed to tag along for a couple of rooms. I hadn't expected them to end up in the Land of the Giants:
View attachment 7286
OK, just a single monster left in ACT II, but it's a real beast.
View attachment 7287
I willingly acknowledge that I don't like Duriel, or rather, the way the battle is set up. Why? Well, because this battle is a challenge with very few, specialized solutions. When you plan a character, you MUST include a way to defeat him (and this already at level 22), at least if it's in Hardcore. The other act bosses are much easier to handle: Andariel is not very dangerous, she does not do much direct damage but instead has a strong poison. Mephisto is easy: either you make use of his stupid behavior and nail him with a ranged attack, or you can usually defeat him relatively easily anyway. Diablo is brutal and deadly, but against him you have huge areas to work with. The battle with Baal is complex and dangerous, but you can largely control the pace and risks involved.
Duriel fights you in a small room. There is nowhere to escape. The only way out is with a Town Portal. Not only is the space limited; your speed is greatly reduced due to Duriel's Holy Freeze aura. Neither cold resistance, Thawing Potions nor even items with Cannot Be Frozen have any effect. This is very bad news for a Sorceress, whose strength lies in taking advantage of space and speed. Duriel is responsible for countless deaths for my first character in D2 (Níniel, an archery Amazon). Níniel was a prime example of a character who had no built-in solution to Duriel. She had no chance. Now, afterwards, I knew that all that would have been required was to put a point in Jab, get a fat Pike and Jab away. <2017 note: In Classic, Jab wasn't affected by base weapon speed.>
Duriel has four types of attack. The first three, he does in close combat, the fourth from "half-distance":
Normal attack: 16-32 damage
Jab: 20-41 damage on up to 3 hits
Smite: 33-66 damage, Knockback and stun for 1.8 seconds.The worst thing about this is that there is a high risk of ending up at a perfect distance for Duriel to do a:
Charge: 48-96 damage, with Knockback (which may risk a new Charge)
<2017 note: Not sure where I got those numbers from, they seem to be a little off. With the ”modern” versions of Duriel, the main danger is the melee cold damage boosts his aura gives him. Protect yourself well from that (even untwinked characters can easily get 85% cold resist with potion help) and you're off to a good start. Also, the Charge attack has been removed.
In 1.09, it was the physical damage that was the problem, especially the Charge.>
Duriel has 2188 life, resist fire/lightning/poison 20% and resist cold 50%. His resistances mean that a Frost Nova only lasts for 4 seconds and Static Field only harms 0.25 * 0.8 = 20% of current life. Nudina's plan is to keep Duriel slowed with Frost Nova, hitting with about twelve Static Fields and finish him off with Firewall or Blaze. After twelve Statics, Duriel has 0.8^12, i.e. about 6.9% of full life, or ~150 life left. So Nudina's problem is not to kill Duriel, it's to stay alive during the battle. The plan is to keep moving amd try to stay at a distance between right next to him and half-distance. At this ideal distance, Duriel can not make an attack, he can only move closer. As he does this, you must move away again, etc.
Nudina's "big sister" Adriella had about the same skills as Nudina has and managed to defeat Duriel without major problems (for example, she suffered only two hits). The differences are that Adriella had fast shoes, a good shield and 12 potions in the belt instead of 4.
Nudina thought a Han Solo quote was in order:
View attachment 7288
We go in. Nudina casts a Frost Nova. Here comes Duriel with a Charge! Oops, Durga is dead (Act Bosses deal huge bonus damage to mercenarys. So much for Durga's Defense. Heh.). Duriel was apparently outside Frost Nova radius, so Nudina casts another. Too late, Duriel is already heading for her in a new Charge. He gets chilled in the middle of the charge, but Nudina does not get away in time. Ouch, Nudina loses half her HP! Drink potion, run, burn off a Static Field. Ouch, too far away, it missed. Duriel comes crawling. Frost Nova right next to him, Duriel hits with one of the two minor attacks (which is still painful). Two steps away, Static, hit (finally!). Oops, Duriel made a Smite (painful!) and followed up with Charge. Fortunately, Nudina drank a full purple between these two attacks but had to drink another after the Charge. This is not going well. Not well at all. Three out of four easily available potions drank and Nudina has hit with ONE Static. Shape up! jiansonz is now shaky and plays worse than he usually does, but at least he gets two well executed Frost Nova + Static Field combinations done. Duriel lands two smaller hits. It's time to get out of here! Nudina does a double teleport to the other side of the room, drinks her last potion and throws up a town portal. Duriel comes with a Charge that hits. Nudina bails out through the portal. Round one to Duriel:
View attachment 7289
I (the player) was now really shaking. I took a break, made a cup of tea and checked out some sports news. So this is what it feels like to play Hardcore? Interesting.
Nudina had a chat with Greiz:
View attachment 7290
"May I hire a new warrior? The one I had...broke."
"I'm doubtful..."
"Please! I promise to take better care of him."
I realize it does not matter what kind of mercenary I choose, they are just cannon fodder. So I picked the warrior who had the most life, a poor guy named Ilzan. Nudina fills up with potions and she and Ilzan go through the portal. What? Yes, you read correctly, THEY GO THROUGH THE PORTAL. Dammit, must have taken took too long a break. I was supposed to enter through the normal entrance, via the waypoint in Canyon of the Magi. Now we ended up right next to Duriel, who begins with Normal Attack + Smite on Nudina. Fortunately, he goes after Ilzan next. Nudina drinks a potion and burns off FOUR clean Static Field while Ilzan tanks Duriel. I feed Ilzan a full purple (this is one of the best things in the expansion, that one can shift-click on keys 1-4 to give potions to the mercenary). Another Static. Good. Because Duriel is standing still and doesn't feel like an immediate threat to Nudina, she casts a Firewall and then two more Static. Oops, failed to heal Ilzan again, he died. Duriel starts chasing Nudina. Two more Static when Duriel swipes in the open air (because Nudina had moved). Hmm, Duriel is really hurt now, less than 10% life left. Maybe it's time to start with Blaze? I fumble too long with the Blaze hotkey and fails to move Nudina fast enough. Duriel makes a Smite + Charge and Nudina's life drops to below 30%! Drink! I do not have the courage to start Blaze running with just one potion left, I want Nudina out of here NOW! Get a Town Portal up but Duriel Smites her away and Nudina has to run half a lap in the room. Faster Run would have been just perfect now. Duriel connets with a minor hit and then MISSES. Unbelievable! 5% chance of it happening. Nudina tries to teleport herself to the portal and drinks her last potion. She ends up a little past the portal. Duriel comes creeping (for once, no Charge). The portal is between them both. Nudina runs towards the portal, Duriel crawls towards Nudina. They meet at the portal. Please, please, please do not let Duriel be in the way ...
'KLOINK'
Yes!
Round two to Nudina.
Let Greiz revive Ilzan. He did a good job lately. Nudina can taste victory now. The tactics is clear: Let Ilzan fight with Duriel, heal him when needed, stack Firewall after Firewall on Duriel. This time we took the waypoint, ran to the True Tomb and to the room with the orifice. Inside Duriel's Lair, a small tactical teleport a couple of steps to the side so that Ilzan is moved away from Duriel's Charge (Mercenarys move with the Teleports, I did not think of that the first time we stepped in.). Ilzan is holding Duriel in place and Nudina opens up with Firewalls Without Mercy. Just after she added the third, it was over:
View attachment 7291
Durga's corpse lies under Duriel's ...
Why are there no screenshots from this exciting battle? Because it would probably have been fatal for Nudina to take one!
Further into the lair, it wasn't Baal who was waiting, but a certain archangel. Nudina was not impressed, instead rather pissed off:
View attachment 7292
"Herself? What about me?"
-----------------------------------------
Meanwhile:
(A small imp knocks on the door to an old damp crypt that has a large lava-filled hole in the middle.)
Mephisto: "Who is that?"
Imp: "It's me, Thlagotheryx. I have disturbing news"
Mephisto: "Come inside."
(The imp nervously opens the door and steps in. The three brothers look up from their meeting.)
Mephisto: "Well...?"
Imp: "Prime Evil Lords, I have news about this naked human sorceress..."
Baal: "Cool, can I have her?"
Mephisto: "Look, we're in the middle of an important meeting. We're planning...evil things. Terror, hatred, destruction, world domination, that kind of stuff..."
Imp: "...she may be a threat. She looks fragile, but has powerful magics. She's already paid visits to the Maiden of Anguish and the Lord of Pain.
Baal: "I bet they gave her a warm welcome, hehe..."
Imp: "In fact, she kicked their butts. And I have reports from the encampment environment, the cathedral and the Gholein deserts. There is not a single one of your creatures there left standing!"
Baal: "ENOUGH!"
Diablo: "KILL! KILL! KILL!"
Mephisto: "Brothers! While I do appreciate your enthusiasm, this threat must obviously be taken seriously."
Diablo: "PAH! NO CLOTHES MEANS NO RESISTANCES! IF SHE REACHES THE CHAOS SANCTUARY AND GETS PAST MY SERVANTS, I WILL PERSONALLY FRY HER SORRY NAKED *SS!!"
Baal: "I'd say we keep to our plans. I'm heading to Mount Arreat with my army. Ta and good hunting!"
-----------------------------------------------------
Nudina is shaken and angry, but the victory against Duriel has given her new resolve.
She will see you in the jungles of Kurast.
View attachment 7283
In Classic D2 he was much worse. Instead of Mana Burn, he was Magic Resistant (75%), thus requiring about four times as many hits from elemental attacks as now. As the battle played out, it hadn't mattered much. Kaa has rarely been so humiliated:
View attachment 7284
Where Nudina was standing, she was safe from the bolts.
With just a little bit of the true tomb left, Nudina hired an assistant, Durga:
View attachment 7285
Durga had Defiance Aura. I hoped it would improve his defense rating so that Duriel would miss a little more than usual. I didn't want Durga to only be cannon fodder, so he was allowed to tag along for a couple of rooms. I hadn't expected them to end up in the Land of the Giants:
View attachment 7286
OK, just a single monster left in ACT II, but it's a real beast.
View attachment 7287
I willingly acknowledge that I don't like Duriel, or rather, the way the battle is set up. Why? Well, because this battle is a challenge with very few, specialized solutions. When you plan a character, you MUST include a way to defeat him (and this already at level 22), at least if it's in Hardcore. The other act bosses are much easier to handle: Andariel is not very dangerous, she does not do much direct damage but instead has a strong poison. Mephisto is easy: either you make use of his stupid behavior and nail him with a ranged attack, or you can usually defeat him relatively easily anyway. Diablo is brutal and deadly, but against him you have huge areas to work with. The battle with Baal is complex and dangerous, but you can largely control the pace and risks involved.
Duriel fights you in a small room. There is nowhere to escape. The only way out is with a Town Portal. Not only is the space limited; your speed is greatly reduced due to Duriel's Holy Freeze aura. Neither cold resistance, Thawing Potions nor even items with Cannot Be Frozen have any effect. This is very bad news for a Sorceress, whose strength lies in taking advantage of space and speed. Duriel is responsible for countless deaths for my first character in D2 (Níniel, an archery Amazon). Níniel was a prime example of a character who had no built-in solution to Duriel. She had no chance. Now, afterwards, I knew that all that would have been required was to put a point in Jab, get a fat Pike and Jab away. <2017 note: In Classic, Jab wasn't affected by base weapon speed.>
Duriel has four types of attack. The first three, he does in close combat, the fourth from "half-distance":
Normal attack: 16-32 damage
Jab: 20-41 damage on up to 3 hits
Smite: 33-66 damage, Knockback and stun for 1.8 seconds.The worst thing about this is that there is a high risk of ending up at a perfect distance for Duriel to do a:
Charge: 48-96 damage, with Knockback (which may risk a new Charge)
<2017 note: Not sure where I got those numbers from, they seem to be a little off. With the ”modern” versions of Duriel, the main danger is the melee cold damage boosts his aura gives him. Protect yourself well from that (even untwinked characters can easily get 85% cold resist with potion help) and you're off to a good start. Also, the Charge attack has been removed.
In 1.09, it was the physical damage that was the problem, especially the Charge.>
Duriel has 2188 life, resist fire/lightning/poison 20% and resist cold 50%. His resistances mean that a Frost Nova only lasts for 4 seconds and Static Field only harms 0.25 * 0.8 = 20% of current life. Nudina's plan is to keep Duriel slowed with Frost Nova, hitting with about twelve Static Fields and finish him off with Firewall or Blaze. After twelve Statics, Duriel has 0.8^12, i.e. about 6.9% of full life, or ~150 life left. So Nudina's problem is not to kill Duriel, it's to stay alive during the battle. The plan is to keep moving amd try to stay at a distance between right next to him and half-distance. At this ideal distance, Duriel can not make an attack, he can only move closer. As he does this, you must move away again, etc.
Nudina's "big sister" Adriella had about the same skills as Nudina has and managed to defeat Duriel without major problems (for example, she suffered only two hits). The differences are that Adriella had fast shoes, a good shield and 12 potions in the belt instead of 4.
Nudina thought a Han Solo quote was in order:
View attachment 7288
We go in. Nudina casts a Frost Nova. Here comes Duriel with a Charge! Oops, Durga is dead (Act Bosses deal huge bonus damage to mercenarys. So much for Durga's Defense. Heh.). Duriel was apparently outside Frost Nova radius, so Nudina casts another. Too late, Duriel is already heading for her in a new Charge. He gets chilled in the middle of the charge, but Nudina does not get away in time. Ouch, Nudina loses half her HP! Drink potion, run, burn off a Static Field. Ouch, too far away, it missed. Duriel comes crawling. Frost Nova right next to him, Duriel hits with one of the two minor attacks (which is still painful). Two steps away, Static, hit (finally!). Oops, Duriel made a Smite (painful!) and followed up with Charge. Fortunately, Nudina drank a full purple between these two attacks but had to drink another after the Charge. This is not going well. Not well at all. Three out of four easily available potions drank and Nudina has hit with ONE Static. Shape up! jiansonz is now shaky and plays worse than he usually does, but at least he gets two well executed Frost Nova + Static Field combinations done. Duriel lands two smaller hits. It's time to get out of here! Nudina does a double teleport to the other side of the room, drinks her last potion and throws up a town portal. Duriel comes with a Charge that hits. Nudina bails out through the portal. Round one to Duriel:
View attachment 7289
I (the player) was now really shaking. I took a break, made a cup of tea and checked out some sports news. So this is what it feels like to play Hardcore? Interesting.
Nudina had a chat with Greiz:
View attachment 7290
"May I hire a new warrior? The one I had...broke."
"I'm doubtful..."
"Please! I promise to take better care of him."
I realize it does not matter what kind of mercenary I choose, they are just cannon fodder. So I picked the warrior who had the most life, a poor guy named Ilzan. Nudina fills up with potions and she and Ilzan go through the portal. What? Yes, you read correctly, THEY GO THROUGH THE PORTAL. Dammit, must have taken took too long a break. I was supposed to enter through the normal entrance, via the waypoint in Canyon of the Magi. Now we ended up right next to Duriel, who begins with Normal Attack + Smite on Nudina. Fortunately, he goes after Ilzan next. Nudina drinks a potion and burns off FOUR clean Static Field while Ilzan tanks Duriel. I feed Ilzan a full purple (this is one of the best things in the expansion, that one can shift-click on keys 1-4 to give potions to the mercenary). Another Static. Good. Because Duriel is standing still and doesn't feel like an immediate threat to Nudina, she casts a Firewall and then two more Static. Oops, failed to heal Ilzan again, he died. Duriel starts chasing Nudina. Two more Static when Duriel swipes in the open air (because Nudina had moved). Hmm, Duriel is really hurt now, less than 10% life left. Maybe it's time to start with Blaze? I fumble too long with the Blaze hotkey and fails to move Nudina fast enough. Duriel makes a Smite + Charge and Nudina's life drops to below 30%! Drink! I do not have the courage to start Blaze running with just one potion left, I want Nudina out of here NOW! Get a Town Portal up but Duriel Smites her away and Nudina has to run half a lap in the room. Faster Run would have been just perfect now. Duriel connets with a minor hit and then MISSES. Unbelievable! 5% chance of it happening. Nudina tries to teleport herself to the portal and drinks her last potion. She ends up a little past the portal. Duriel comes creeping (for once, no Charge). The portal is between them both. Nudina runs towards the portal, Duriel crawls towards Nudina. They meet at the portal. Please, please, please do not let Duriel be in the way ...
'KLOINK'
Yes!
Round two to Nudina.
Let Greiz revive Ilzan. He did a good job lately. Nudina can taste victory now. The tactics is clear: Let Ilzan fight with Duriel, heal him when needed, stack Firewall after Firewall on Duriel. This time we took the waypoint, ran to the True Tomb and to the room with the orifice. Inside Duriel's Lair, a small tactical teleport a couple of steps to the side so that Ilzan is moved away from Duriel's Charge (Mercenarys move with the Teleports, I did not think of that the first time we stepped in.). Ilzan is holding Duriel in place and Nudina opens up with Firewalls Without Mercy. Just after she added the third, it was over:
View attachment 7291
Durga's corpse lies under Duriel's ...
Why are there no screenshots from this exciting battle? Because it would probably have been fatal for Nudina to take one!
Further into the lair, it wasn't Baal who was waiting, but a certain archangel. Nudina was not impressed, instead rather pissed off:
View attachment 7292
"Herself? What about me?"
-----------------------------------------
Meanwhile:
(A small imp knocks on the door to an old damp crypt that has a large lava-filled hole in the middle.)
Mephisto: "Who is that?"
Imp: "It's me, Thlagotheryx. I have disturbing news"
Mephisto: "Come inside."
(The imp nervously opens the door and steps in. The three brothers look up from their meeting.)
Mephisto: "Well...?"
Imp: "Prime Evil Lords, I have news about this naked human sorceress..."
Baal: "Cool, can I have her?"
Mephisto: "Look, we're in the middle of an important meeting. We're planning...evil things. Terror, hatred, destruction, world domination, that kind of stuff..."
Imp: "...she may be a threat. She looks fragile, but has powerful magics. She's already paid visits to the Maiden of Anguish and the Lord of Pain.
Baal: "I bet they gave her a warm welcome, hehe..."
Imp: "In fact, she kicked their butts. And I have reports from the encampment environment, the cathedral and the Gholein deserts. There is not a single one of your creatures there left standing!"
Baal: "ENOUGH!"
Diablo: "KILL! KILL! KILL!"
Mephisto: "Brothers! While I do appreciate your enthusiasm, this threat must obviously be taken seriously."
Diablo: "PAH! NO CLOTHES MEANS NO RESISTANCES! IF SHE REACHES THE CHAOS SANCTUARY AND GETS PAST MY SERVANTS, I WILL PERSONALLY FRY HER SORRY NAKED *SS!!"
Baal: "I'd say we keep to our plans. I'm heading to Mount Arreat with my army. Ta and good hunting!"
-----------------------------------------------------
Nudina is shaken and angry, but the victory against Duriel has given her new resolve.
She will see you in the jungles of Kurast.
Last edited:
- Aug 17, 2003
- 30,902
- 525
- 113
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Act III
Nudina started Act III on level 22 with the following stats and skills:
STR 10, DEX 25, VIT 55, ENE 95, Life 151, Mana 197
Frozen Armor 1 (not used)
Shiver Armor 1
Icebolt 1 (not used)
Ice Blast 1 (very rarely used)
Frost Nova 1
Glacial Spike 3
Charged Bolt 1 (not used)
Lightning 1
Chain Lightning 1
Static Field 3
Telekinesis 1 (very rarely used)
Teleport 1
Warmth 4 (retrieves mana 66% faster)
Inferno 1 (not used)
Blaze 1
Firewall 1
The welcoming in this town was a lot better than in the previous one:
View attachment 7302
Just outside the village, this gentleman waited, though he did not want to talk to Nudina. As if he was shy or something...
View attachment 7303
Ilzan did not live for long. He had a tendency to enter the most crowded spots and demanded almost constant 'babysitting'. In addition, he interfered with Nudina's Blaze tactics when the enemies had another target to chase. She became more and more unwilling to save him until it finally became too much. He was definitely no Elly.
The start of the jungle had mostly silly birds as opponents (Cloud Stalkers). Nudina found a jade statuette a Cloud Stalker boss dropped. She used it to trade with Meshif and instead got a golden bird statuette with some ash inside. Probably from a cremation. Nudina asked Asheara for advice, but she was totally lost:
View attachment 7304
Alkor the alchemist knew better. This was the ashes after a famous sage. Alkor cooked a very useful potion. Recently, Nudina hasn't had much mana troubles. What she needed now was a bigger safety margin versus disasters. During many level-ups in the future she will pump only Vitality. Alkor's potion was a welcome addition:
View attachment 7305
As I wrote earlier, ACT III is my favorite. The graphics, the music, the ambience, everything is top notch. In addition, the act contains many cool monsters and several of the best battles in the game. Like the one with Sszark the Burning in the Spider Cavern. If she were to be Cursed by Sszark, she mustn't get hit again before she's healed up, or it could mean death:
View attachment 7306
Nudina had plenty of space and performed well in this battle. Sszark was kept chilled the whole time and there were actually no problems at all. Wow, what a confidence boost!
Great Marsh next. In the river there were some River Stalkers who spat poison at Nudina. It was annoying, the poison ran for a long time. Glacial Spike hurt them, but did not freeze them. Since they are in the water, there is no 'allowed area' for the freezing effect to work. This gave a renaissance for Ice Blast, whose freeze effect is instead directly linked to the hit. More than 10 shots were required to defeat a River Stalker, but it was still a preferrable method:
View attachment 7307
Check out this ugly trick the enemies used:
View attachment 7308
Invisible monsters!
Well, they are not completely invisible. You can see them now and then and when they are in close combat, they are fully visible. Luckily, Gloams do not have much life. Two Glacial Spike was enough, and sometimes even one was enough.
Otherwise, Nudina faced mostly Bramble Hulks and Drowned Carcasses here in Great Marsh. Both of these enemy types are slow and have a lot of life. Nudina used a lot of Static Field but even more Blaze and packed it triple, fivefold, even sevenfold sometimes. There was no danger whatsoever. The whole thing was easy but very sluggish and after a while, jiansonz had difficulty staying awake. Nudina felt she needed to do something:
"Hey, you there!"
"Zzzzzzzzzz... yes, what do you want?"
"This won't do! Why the lack of enthusiasm?"
"Well, usually, a fun part of D2 is constantly trying to improve the character's equipment, finding expensive gadgets you can sell. To check with merchants, gamble, to use the Horadric Cube to make some nice stuff. But all you do is killing monsters and when that takes time but isn't a challenge you become...a bit boring to play ."
"Well, and whose brilliant idea was this from the beginning? What say did I have in the matter?"
"Uhh..."
"I think I have a solution to your problem. Hold on for a while and I'll get back to you.
Up there's a bunch of faster enemies, but how small they are and what big teeth and knives they have..."
Nudina had reached Flayer Jungle and was immediately "escorted" by about 28 Flayers and Soul Killers. They all became pretty little ice cubes. Glacial Spike level 3 DOMINATES all types of Fetish. No, not everyone. Not a Magic Resistant bone fetish boss:
View attachment 7309
This little pest had Nudina going back and forth in this hallway a number of times and zap with Static Field. She finished with Blaze.
This was in Flayer Dungeon. Finally, only the Witch Doctor's room remained. His pals* got to experience Firewall pains but the witch doctor himself is immune, so Nudina used Chain Lightning:
View attachment 7310
He was far too restless to hit from a distance with Glacial Spike. Chain Lightning still deals damage even when it doesn't hit directly, but only passes close by. Static Field was never an option because Nudina absolutely wanted stay outside of the Witch Doctor's Inferno range.
In the chest, Nudina found a brain. Does this mean that she had been brainless up to this point?
-------------------------------------------------
* <2017 note: In v1.09 (and earlier), bosspacks of shaman type monsters didn't have minions in the form of warriors, but in the form of other shamans. This applies to both Fallen, Fetishes, greater mummies and Oblivion Knights (!). You can still see a remnant of this in later versions, when greater mummies act as guest monsters in NM/Hell Act V, and one of these spawn as a bosspack.>
Nudina started Act III on level 22 with the following stats and skills:
STR 10, DEX 25, VIT 55, ENE 95, Life 151, Mana 197
Frozen Armor 1 (not used)
Shiver Armor 1
Icebolt 1 (not used)
Ice Blast 1 (very rarely used)
Frost Nova 1
Glacial Spike 3
Charged Bolt 1 (not used)
Lightning 1
Chain Lightning 1
Static Field 3
Telekinesis 1 (very rarely used)
Teleport 1
Warmth 4 (retrieves mana 66% faster)
Inferno 1 (not used)
Blaze 1
Firewall 1
The welcoming in this town was a lot better than in the previous one:
View attachment 7302
Just outside the village, this gentleman waited, though he did not want to talk to Nudina. As if he was shy or something...
View attachment 7303
Ilzan did not live for long. He had a tendency to enter the most crowded spots and demanded almost constant 'babysitting'. In addition, he interfered with Nudina's Blaze tactics when the enemies had another target to chase. She became more and more unwilling to save him until it finally became too much. He was definitely no Elly.
The start of the jungle had mostly silly birds as opponents (Cloud Stalkers). Nudina found a jade statuette a Cloud Stalker boss dropped. She used it to trade with Meshif and instead got a golden bird statuette with some ash inside. Probably from a cremation. Nudina asked Asheara for advice, but she was totally lost:
View attachment 7304
Alkor the alchemist knew better. This was the ashes after a famous sage. Alkor cooked a very useful potion. Recently, Nudina hasn't had much mana troubles. What she needed now was a bigger safety margin versus disasters. During many level-ups in the future she will pump only Vitality. Alkor's potion was a welcome addition:
View attachment 7305
As I wrote earlier, ACT III is my favorite. The graphics, the music, the ambience, everything is top notch. In addition, the act contains many cool monsters and several of the best battles in the game. Like the one with Sszark the Burning in the Spider Cavern. If she were to be Cursed by Sszark, she mustn't get hit again before she's healed up, or it could mean death:
View attachment 7306
Nudina had plenty of space and performed well in this battle. Sszark was kept chilled the whole time and there were actually no problems at all. Wow, what a confidence boost!
Great Marsh next. In the river there were some River Stalkers who spat poison at Nudina. It was annoying, the poison ran for a long time. Glacial Spike hurt them, but did not freeze them. Since they are in the water, there is no 'allowed area' for the freezing effect to work. This gave a renaissance for Ice Blast, whose freeze effect is instead directly linked to the hit. More than 10 shots were required to defeat a River Stalker, but it was still a preferrable method:
View attachment 7307
Check out this ugly trick the enemies used:
View attachment 7308
Invisible monsters!
Well, they are not completely invisible. You can see them now and then and when they are in close combat, they are fully visible. Luckily, Gloams do not have much life. Two Glacial Spike was enough, and sometimes even one was enough.
Otherwise, Nudina faced mostly Bramble Hulks and Drowned Carcasses here in Great Marsh. Both of these enemy types are slow and have a lot of life. Nudina used a lot of Static Field but even more Blaze and packed it triple, fivefold, even sevenfold sometimes. There was no danger whatsoever. The whole thing was easy but very sluggish and after a while, jiansonz had difficulty staying awake. Nudina felt she needed to do something:
"Hey, you there!"
"Zzzzzzzzzz... yes, what do you want?"
"This won't do! Why the lack of enthusiasm?"
"Well, usually, a fun part of D2 is constantly trying to improve the character's equipment, finding expensive gadgets you can sell. To check with merchants, gamble, to use the Horadric Cube to make some nice stuff. But all you do is killing monsters and when that takes time but isn't a challenge you become...a bit boring to play ."
"Well, and whose brilliant idea was this from the beginning? What say did I have in the matter?"
"Uhh..."
"I think I have a solution to your problem. Hold on for a while and I'll get back to you.
Up there's a bunch of faster enemies, but how small they are and what big teeth and knives they have..."
Nudina had reached Flayer Jungle and was immediately "escorted" by about 28 Flayers and Soul Killers. They all became pretty little ice cubes. Glacial Spike level 3 DOMINATES all types of Fetish. No, not everyone. Not a Magic Resistant bone fetish boss:
View attachment 7309
This little pest had Nudina going back and forth in this hallway a number of times and zap with Static Field. She finished with Blaze.
This was in Flayer Dungeon. Finally, only the Witch Doctor's room remained. His pals* got to experience Firewall pains but the witch doctor himself is immune, so Nudina used Chain Lightning:
View attachment 7310
He was far too restless to hit from a distance with Glacial Spike. Chain Lightning still deals damage even when it doesn't hit directly, but only passes close by. Static Field was never an option because Nudina absolutely wanted stay outside of the Witch Doctor's Inferno range.
In the chest, Nudina found a brain. Does this mean that she had been brainless up to this point?
-------------------------------------------------
* <2017 note: In v1.09 (and earlier), bosspacks of shaman type monsters didn't have minions in the form of warriors, but in the form of other shamans. This applies to both Fallen, Fetishes, greater mummies and Oblivion Knights (!). You can still see a remnant of this in later versions, when greater mummies act as guest monsters in NM/Hell Act V, and one of these spawn as a bosspack.>
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Outside Flayer Dungeon, Nudina found a dagger that matched Hratli's description. Returning to Kurast Docks with the Gidbinn, you get two rewards: A rare ring from Ormus and a mercenary from Asheara.
The ring of course didn't do Nudina any good either, and wouldn't have even if she could use items. It did have +27 mana that would have been welcome, but Nudina has seen far better +mana rings than that.
Over to Asheara. In Classic D2, you were given a mercenary at this stage, if you did not currently have one. Here in D2X she says the same reward quote, but you won't receive any merc (unless you've never had one). This is because the game shouldn't overwrite your current merc, equipment and all.
I thought Nudina was entitled to some help as a reward, so therefore I hired one, Jarulf:
View attachment 7311
Yep, the best Lightning mercenary Asheara had. The thought behind this was that the mercs from this act are the least equipment dependent ones since they are mages. I chose the Lightning variant because Nudina uses mostly Fire and Cold. Jarulf performed very well, alternating between Charged Bolt and Lightning. Also, he (like Elly) had the sense to stay away from most hazards. I have no pictures from Swampy Pit but Nudina and Jarulf had no problems there, despite several bosspacks. Together they also cleaned up the rest of the Flayer Jungle (and that was a lot!). But Jarulf never got to see Lower Kurast. He fell to the last guardian:
View attachment 7312
View attachment 7313
Nudina was depressed. It felt as if every companion was brutally taken from her just as she started to get attached to them. Was Elly really the only exception? Not at all! Nudina did not know of my rule about resurrecting mercs for especially dangerous areas. She would get to see Jarulf again.
Nudina tried to drown her sorrows by gambling a cap from Alkor. It did not help, and the cap wasn't any good looking either:
View attachment 7314
But there are character classes that use even uglier (and downright disgusting) equipment. Check this out:
View attachment 7315
Lower Kurast cleared, Kurast Bazaar cleared except for Ruined Temple. I really have respect for that place. It is notorious for its stairs traps (a large pack of monster right by the stairs, often a bosspack). In addition, Lam Esen's Tome is always guarded by Battlemaid Sarina and her many Extra Fast minions. Sometimes, you can only take a couple of steps from the stairs and they will rush you. Who do you call when you expect trouble? Ghost Busters? No, Jarulf!
View attachment 7316
In addition, you use a Skill Shrine...We go down. No enemies at all. Always a good start. And a timely Refilling Shrine:
View attachment 7317
Uh, oh, here comes a Night Lord boss with Holy Fire aura!
View attachment 7318
Nudina's and Jurulf's injuries come from two pulses of Holy Fire. A little annoying that it can not be avoided. But there was no major danger. Nudina went in and zapped with Static Field until the boss was so hurt that it flew into a corner. Here it was easy to finish it off with a Firewall. After carefully cleaning up what they could without waking up Sarina & Co., it turned out that the rooms were interconnected in a series. This was good news because it meant that Nudina had the option to run around with Blaze until her Stamina would expire:
View attachment 7319
I chose to let Nudina and Jarulf come in from the left because it was the most space there. Sarina came running but had only a small group with her:
View attachment 7320
Sarina's remaining minions got the "fire-freeze" treatment.
The temple was, to be honest, a little disappointment for me. There was no major resistance. But, of course, if there ever was a good time to roll an easy temple, what better time than with a naked hardcore character?
The ring of course didn't do Nudina any good either, and wouldn't have even if she could use items. It did have +27 mana that would have been welcome, but Nudina has seen far better +mana rings than that.
Over to Asheara. In Classic D2, you were given a mercenary at this stage, if you did not currently have one. Here in D2X she says the same reward quote, but you won't receive any merc (unless you've never had one). This is because the game shouldn't overwrite your current merc, equipment and all.
I thought Nudina was entitled to some help as a reward, so therefore I hired one, Jarulf:
View attachment 7311
Yep, the best Lightning mercenary Asheara had. The thought behind this was that the mercs from this act are the least equipment dependent ones since they are mages. I chose the Lightning variant because Nudina uses mostly Fire and Cold. Jarulf performed very well, alternating between Charged Bolt and Lightning. Also, he (like Elly) had the sense to stay away from most hazards. I have no pictures from Swampy Pit but Nudina and Jarulf had no problems there, despite several bosspacks. Together they also cleaned up the rest of the Flayer Jungle (and that was a lot!). But Jarulf never got to see Lower Kurast. He fell to the last guardian:
View attachment 7312
View attachment 7313
Nudina was depressed. It felt as if every companion was brutally taken from her just as she started to get attached to them. Was Elly really the only exception? Not at all! Nudina did not know of my rule about resurrecting mercs for especially dangerous areas. She would get to see Jarulf again.
Nudina tried to drown her sorrows by gambling a cap from Alkor. It did not help, and the cap wasn't any good looking either:
View attachment 7314
But there are character classes that use even uglier (and downright disgusting) equipment. Check this out:
View attachment 7315
Lower Kurast cleared, Kurast Bazaar cleared except for Ruined Temple. I really have respect for that place. It is notorious for its stairs traps (a large pack of monster right by the stairs, often a bosspack). In addition, Lam Esen's Tome is always guarded by Battlemaid Sarina and her many Extra Fast minions. Sometimes, you can only take a couple of steps from the stairs and they will rush you. Who do you call when you expect trouble? Ghost Busters? No, Jarulf!
View attachment 7316
In addition, you use a Skill Shrine...We go down. No enemies at all. Always a good start. And a timely Refilling Shrine:
View attachment 7317
Uh, oh, here comes a Night Lord boss with Holy Fire aura!
View attachment 7318
Nudina's and Jurulf's injuries come from two pulses of Holy Fire. A little annoying that it can not be avoided. But there was no major danger. Nudina went in and zapped with Static Field until the boss was so hurt that it flew into a corner. Here it was easy to finish it off with a Firewall. After carefully cleaning up what they could without waking up Sarina & Co., it turned out that the rooms were interconnected in a series. This was good news because it meant that Nudina had the option to run around with Blaze until her Stamina would expire:
View attachment 7319
I chose to let Nudina and Jarulf come in from the left because it was the most space there. Sarina came running but had only a small group with her:
View attachment 7320
Sarina's remaining minions got the "fire-freeze" treatment.
The temple was, to be honest, a little disappointment for me. There was no major resistance. But, of course, if there ever was a good time to roll an easy temple, what better time than with a naked hardcore character?
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Down in Kurast Sewers, there was a thing that Blizzard claims they have fixed. I beg to differ:
View attachment 7327
Characters with no access to Teleport can't reach this island.
(BTW, check out Jarulf's light show.)
The sewers were unusual in another way as well. They were the biggest I have ever seen. There is usually a large space in the middle that is not part of the accessible area. This time there was only a mid-sized square where you could not be:
View attachment 7328
"jiansonz, am I still boring? Do you still want to hunt for items? Do you want to hear my proposal?"
"Lately, it has actually been more fun. Jarulf is interesting to handle and the enemies have been quite challenging. But out with it, woman! I'm curious."
"You like hunting for Set items and Unique items, right?"
"Sure, I keep notes of the finds. Even your meager haul."
"At the Academy, we tested various items. Only those that improved my survival chances prevented my magic." I suggest a small loophole in the 'no equipment' rule."
"You can wear equipment with Magic Find?"
"As I said, everything that does not increase my survival chances. This amulet, for example":
View attachment 7329
This made the game more enjoyable. A new goal, trying to increase Nudina's Magic Find. Rings, Amulets and Charms were no problem. Armor items have Defense, so gloves, belts, shoes, armor, helmet and shield are our. But not weapons. Weapons are OK unless they improve Nudina's survival chances and if I do not have Attack on any hotkey and promise to never use Attack.
Rings and amulets can be gambled, so now there was a reason to sell everything valuable. It was great to feel money greed again! Lacking Magic Find, Gold Find (as in the amulet) would do for now. More money means more gambling.
Ruined Temple had no stairs trap but Forgotten Temple in Upper Kurast did:
View attachment 7330
Only a single bosspack and it was not that big but it was still a lively fight.
In one of the Causeway temples, another Serpent Magus bosspack was waiting. Here, the boss has hit Jarulf with a Charge, and it was to be followed by two more:
View attachment 7331
Jarulf was almost dead and I quickly fed him a purple. I had major Fangskin flashbacks. But Gloom Thirst was not Fangskin, not Lightning Enchanted. Burned just as well, though.
Soon after, the first Magic Find item showed up but it was off-limits:
View attachment 7332
Travincal next. I love that place. Nearly always provides some good fights.
Nudina and Jarulf worked slowly but steadily. In the end, only the High Council remained. You have to kill at least one of the three bosses to get hold of Khalim's Flail, otherwise you can not progress with the game. The three are Ismail Vilehand (Extra Fast, Cursed), Geleb Flamefinger (Extra Strong, Fire Enchanted) and Toorc Icefist (Cold Enchanted, Stone Skin). As usual, the best tactic was to ensure that you fight only one at a time.
Council Members are strong in melee. When they become significantly damaged they often pull back (sometimes not if they are occupied in close combat), heal themselves and cast Hydra.
Geleb was first. He came out along with a minion:
View attachment 7333
How did it go? Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Glacial Spike, Glacial Spike, Glacial Spike, dead Geleb. Well, Jarulf softened him up a bit first.
Next up, Ismail. Damn he's fast!
View attachment 7334
This turned into a little cat-and-mouse game. Who the cat was shifted but Nudina won in the end.
Toorc proved to be as easy to kill as Geleb.
Back at Kurast Docks. Put the flail and all Khalim's disgusting body parts in the cube, and here is the "key" to the progress:
View attachment 7335
If you have a melee character here in Normal, it's a good idea to craft the flail after the first boss kill and use it on the other two bosses. What a weapon!
View attachment 7327
Characters with no access to Teleport can't reach this island.
(BTW, check out Jarulf's light show.)
The sewers were unusual in another way as well. They were the biggest I have ever seen. There is usually a large space in the middle that is not part of the accessible area. This time there was only a mid-sized square where you could not be:
View attachment 7328
"jiansonz, am I still boring? Do you still want to hunt for items? Do you want to hear my proposal?"
"Lately, it has actually been more fun. Jarulf is interesting to handle and the enemies have been quite challenging. But out with it, woman! I'm curious."
"You like hunting for Set items and Unique items, right?"
"Sure, I keep notes of the finds. Even your meager haul."
"At the Academy, we tested various items. Only those that improved my survival chances prevented my magic." I suggest a small loophole in the 'no equipment' rule."
"You can wear equipment with Magic Find?"
"As I said, everything that does not increase my survival chances. This amulet, for example":
View attachment 7329
This made the game more enjoyable. A new goal, trying to increase Nudina's Magic Find. Rings, Amulets and Charms were no problem. Armor items have Defense, so gloves, belts, shoes, armor, helmet and shield are our. But not weapons. Weapons are OK unless they improve Nudina's survival chances and if I do not have Attack on any hotkey and promise to never use Attack.
Rings and amulets can be gambled, so now there was a reason to sell everything valuable. It was great to feel money greed again! Lacking Magic Find, Gold Find (as in the amulet) would do for now. More money means more gambling.
Ruined Temple had no stairs trap but Forgotten Temple in Upper Kurast did:
View attachment 7330
Only a single bosspack and it was not that big but it was still a lively fight.
In one of the Causeway temples, another Serpent Magus bosspack was waiting. Here, the boss has hit Jarulf with a Charge, and it was to be followed by two more:
View attachment 7331
Jarulf was almost dead and I quickly fed him a purple. I had major Fangskin flashbacks. But Gloom Thirst was not Fangskin, not Lightning Enchanted. Burned just as well, though.
Soon after, the first Magic Find item showed up but it was off-limits:
View attachment 7332
Travincal next. I love that place. Nearly always provides some good fights.
Nudina and Jarulf worked slowly but steadily. In the end, only the High Council remained. You have to kill at least one of the three bosses to get hold of Khalim's Flail, otherwise you can not progress with the game. The three are Ismail Vilehand (Extra Fast, Cursed), Geleb Flamefinger (Extra Strong, Fire Enchanted) and Toorc Icefist (Cold Enchanted, Stone Skin). As usual, the best tactic was to ensure that you fight only one at a time.
Council Members are strong in melee. When they become significantly damaged they often pull back (sometimes not if they are occupied in close combat), heal themselves and cast Hydra.
Geleb was first. He came out along with a minion:
View attachment 7333
How did it go? Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Static, Glacial Spike, Glacial Spike, Glacial Spike, dead Geleb. Well, Jarulf softened him up a bit first.
Next up, Ismail. Damn he's fast!
View attachment 7334
This turned into a little cat-and-mouse game. Who the cat was shifted but Nudina won in the end.
Toorc proved to be as easy to kill as Geleb.
Back at Kurast Docks. Put the flail and all Khalim's disgusting body parts in the cube, and here is the "key" to the progress:
View attachment 7335
If you have a melee character here in Normal, it's a good idea to craft the flail after the first boss kill and use it on the other two bosses. What a weapon!
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Durance of Hate can be dangerous. But the beginning was calm, just a pack of Cadavers. They are slow, can't take much beating and do not hurt much. They qualify as Easy Pickings™.
View attachment 7340
Then it got more lively. Undead Stygian Dolls (but fortunately no bosspack):
View attachment 7341
The weird physics strikes again, one of them is frozen in mid-air(?).
There was nothing life-threatening on the first two floors, but now it was time for the third.
A pair of Blood Lords in the first room. Then another Council Member boss, Bremm Sparkfist:
View attachment 7342
Bremm has been changed in the expansion. He used to be Lightning Enchanted and Blessed Aim. Now he is Cold Enchanted and Conviction and therefore no longer has a fitting name. Conviction is an aura that lowers Defense and resistances. Blizzard has messed up the character screen when it comes to Conviction. The display is not correct at all. According to this...:
View attachment 7343
...Nudina's resistances have only decreased from 0 to -5. It's wrong, wrong, wrong! Experience has shown that the effect is much worse than that.
The battle became hectic. Nudina fire-froze minions when she had the chance. When only Bremm remained, Nudina used Static Field and Blaze. But Bremm did not cooperate. He healed himself several times and threw out swarms of Hydras. The fire of the Hydras hurt Nudina badly because of Conviction. Nudina was hit by Bremm and chilled (Cold Enchanted) but eventually gained the upper hand. Then Bremm got crazy and started chasing Nudina like a maniac. Nudina ran (with Blaze running) down towards the center of the room. Oops, here was a whole bunch of hydras! Nudina's life fell catastrophically fast. She was so quickly injured that her Energy Shield expired (no mana left) and then her life fell even faster. She drank a full purple but did not have time to put up a new Energy Shield. The hydras shot once more, then they expired. At the same time, Bremm had taken so much damage by Blaze that he died!
Nudina was FLOORED by his death FrostNova:
View attachment 7344
17 life left!!! Close doesn't even begin to describe it...
That's a drawback with Blaze: that you can never really control when an opponent dies. Even so, it was clumsy to get hit by the death nova. Even more, to be it without Energy Shield up. I think Nudina took over 170 damage. Yikes!
After that ordeal, Blood Lords in Bremm's room were easy:
View attachment 7345
I like this screenie – it's nicely action packed. To the left you see the ice cubes from a Blood Lord who got fire-frozen and the cursor points to one that is frozen and is just about to get the same treatment. The two Firewalls on the right are not Nudina's. The Blood Lord by the cursor has cast the vertical one and the other has cast the horizontal one. Furthermore, there's a Meteor coming down (good thing Nudina moved before it hit!). You can also see Jarulf and his Lightning.
Two more Council bosses coming up. In the left room, Maffer Dragonhand (Extra Strong, Extra Fast) and in the right room Wyand Voidbringer (Teleportation, Mana Burn). I chose to start with Wyand. Now that Teleportation no longer heals the monster when it teleports, he is usually easy. No longer two types of endless healing!
Maffer next. It's no joke when it says that he is Extra Fast! He was onto Nudina like a leech.
She could clearly have had a case for sexual harassment here...
The tactic against Maffer was Frost Nova (to make his speed more manageable) and short teleports just as he swiped at Nudina, followed by Static Field. The melee attack meant that he, for once, was standing still. When Maffer started getting injured, he pulled away to a wall and began to heal himself. But he could not heal faster than Nudina's Firewalls damaged him:
View attachment 7346
It was the end of the warm-up and time for the main course: Mephisto. That was probably the programmer's view of it, at least, but because of Mephisto's behavior, he is ridiculously easy. You just have to get him to the edge of the moat with the character on the other side and then back off so Mephisto is only seen a little bit. At this distance, Mephisto tries to move towards the character (which is not possible because the moat is in the way), and does not understand that he should fight instead. Now you can just shoot him down with a bow (or in Nudina's case, open up a can of Firewalls). I thought I had taken a screenie of this, but I must have missed the button.
Mephisto took revenge by dropping this tempting staff:
View attachment 7347
Faster Cast and +1 Fire Skills. Not bad.
One Prime Evil down. Two to go. Nudina will see you in the Pandemonium Fortress.
View attachment 7340
Then it got more lively. Undead Stygian Dolls (but fortunately no bosspack):
View attachment 7341
The weird physics strikes again, one of them is frozen in mid-air(?).
There was nothing life-threatening on the first two floors, but now it was time for the third.
A pair of Blood Lords in the first room. Then another Council Member boss, Bremm Sparkfist:
View attachment 7342
Bremm has been changed in the expansion. He used to be Lightning Enchanted and Blessed Aim. Now he is Cold Enchanted and Conviction and therefore no longer has a fitting name. Conviction is an aura that lowers Defense and resistances. Blizzard has messed up the character screen when it comes to Conviction. The display is not correct at all. According to this...:
View attachment 7343
...Nudina's resistances have only decreased from 0 to -5. It's wrong, wrong, wrong! Experience has shown that the effect is much worse than that.
The battle became hectic. Nudina fire-froze minions when she had the chance. When only Bremm remained, Nudina used Static Field and Blaze. But Bremm did not cooperate. He healed himself several times and threw out swarms of Hydras. The fire of the Hydras hurt Nudina badly because of Conviction. Nudina was hit by Bremm and chilled (Cold Enchanted) but eventually gained the upper hand. Then Bremm got crazy and started chasing Nudina like a maniac. Nudina ran (with Blaze running) down towards the center of the room. Oops, here was a whole bunch of hydras! Nudina's life fell catastrophically fast. She was so quickly injured that her Energy Shield expired (no mana left) and then her life fell even faster. She drank a full purple but did not have time to put up a new Energy Shield. The hydras shot once more, then they expired. At the same time, Bremm had taken so much damage by Blaze that he died!
Nudina was FLOORED by his death FrostNova:
View attachment 7344
17 life left!!! Close doesn't even begin to describe it...
That's a drawback with Blaze: that you can never really control when an opponent dies. Even so, it was clumsy to get hit by the death nova. Even more, to be it without Energy Shield up. I think Nudina took over 170 damage. Yikes!
After that ordeal, Blood Lords in Bremm's room were easy:
View attachment 7345
I like this screenie – it's nicely action packed. To the left you see the ice cubes from a Blood Lord who got fire-frozen and the cursor points to one that is frozen and is just about to get the same treatment. The two Firewalls on the right are not Nudina's. The Blood Lord by the cursor has cast the vertical one and the other has cast the horizontal one. Furthermore, there's a Meteor coming down (good thing Nudina moved before it hit!). You can also see Jarulf and his Lightning.
Two more Council bosses coming up. In the left room, Maffer Dragonhand (Extra Strong, Extra Fast) and in the right room Wyand Voidbringer (Teleportation, Mana Burn). I chose to start with Wyand. Now that Teleportation no longer heals the monster when it teleports, he is usually easy. No longer two types of endless healing!
Maffer next. It's no joke when it says that he is Extra Fast! He was onto Nudina like a leech.
She could clearly have had a case for sexual harassment here...
The tactic against Maffer was Frost Nova (to make his speed more manageable) and short teleports just as he swiped at Nudina, followed by Static Field. The melee attack meant that he, for once, was standing still. When Maffer started getting injured, he pulled away to a wall and began to heal himself. But he could not heal faster than Nudina's Firewalls damaged him:
View attachment 7346
It was the end of the warm-up and time for the main course: Mephisto. That was probably the programmer's view of it, at least, but because of Mephisto's behavior, he is ridiculously easy. You just have to get him to the edge of the moat with the character on the other side and then back off so Mephisto is only seen a little bit. At this distance, Mephisto tries to move towards the character (which is not possible because the moat is in the way), and does not understand that he should fight instead. Now you can just shoot him down with a bow (or in Nudina's case, open up a can of Firewalls). I thought I had taken a screenie of this, but I must have missed the button.
Mephisto took revenge by dropping this tempting staff:
View attachment 7347
Faster Cast and +1 Fire Skills. Not bad.
One Prime Evil down. Two to go. Nudina will see you in the Pandemonium Fortress.
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Nudina and Jarulf were attacked immediately, at the stairs from Pandemonium Fortress:
View attachment 7361
Monster: "Nudina, welcome to Hell!"
Other monster: "Now get ready to leave it!"
Nudina didn't want listen to that. It developed into a tough battle (that required three potions) but eventually even the boss fell:
View attachment 7362
Even though she would have liked to have more space, Nudina knew that it was best to keep the fight here. Had she moved further, more and more monsters would likely have joined the fray. The important thing was to establish a foothold. Typical that the area's bosspack would be right here…
The tactic was indeed right. Nudina took a few more steps and was immediately attacked by another pack of monsters. They were managed easily. The rest of the Outer Steppes was no problem either. Here's another good action shot:
View attachment 7363
Just before the Steppes was cleared, Nudina found a Gem Shrine and was able to upgrade her flawless diamond to make her first perfect. Pretty!
View attachment 7364
A bit into the Plains of Despair, this gentleman paid a visit:
View attachment 7365
Izual is a monster that makes you scratch your head. He is not particularly dangerous and you usually do not require any special tactics to defeat him, he just has a HELL of a lot of life (almost 5700, more than Diablo, actually).
Check Izual's life. Nudina has used Static Field to damage about 3000 life in little more than a second. What other character class can do that at level 25?
View attachment 7366
When Static Field stopped doing much, Jarulf tanked for a while. Good work, Jarulf!
Nudina found a decent and stylish staff here in the Plains. Too bad that it was off-limits for her:
View attachment 7367
There was a boss on the Plains as well:
View attachment 7368
After Jarulf took out that Doom Knight, he was pretty useless against this beast.
City of the Damned next. In all areas of the ACT IV (except the last), three monster types are drawn from a pool of 6-7 possible ones. Bosses/Champions are randomized separately. Nudina (with her lack of resistances) feared Abyss Knights in the City of the Damned. First monster type: Pit Lords. Okay, they're manageable of you keep the distance. Second type: Stygian Hags. Annoying with their breeding but also fine, again, if you keep the distance. What is the third type? Please, no Abyss Knights. Here they come:
View attachment 7369
Perfect. Also, City of the Damned feels a bit wrong without Damned, doesn't it?
This dude could not have had an easy time. Both Cursed and Damned. Poor thing!
View attachment 7370
View attachment 7361
Monster: "Nudina, welcome to Hell!"
Other monster: "Now get ready to leave it!"
Nudina didn't want listen to that. It developed into a tough battle (that required three potions) but eventually even the boss fell:
View attachment 7362
Even though she would have liked to have more space, Nudina knew that it was best to keep the fight here. Had she moved further, more and more monsters would likely have joined the fray. The important thing was to establish a foothold. Typical that the area's bosspack would be right here…
The tactic was indeed right. Nudina took a few more steps and was immediately attacked by another pack of monsters. They were managed easily. The rest of the Outer Steppes was no problem either. Here's another good action shot:
View attachment 7363
Just before the Steppes was cleared, Nudina found a Gem Shrine and was able to upgrade her flawless diamond to make her first perfect. Pretty!
View attachment 7364
A bit into the Plains of Despair, this gentleman paid a visit:
View attachment 7365
Izual is a monster that makes you scratch your head. He is not particularly dangerous and you usually do not require any special tactics to defeat him, he just has a HELL of a lot of life (almost 5700, more than Diablo, actually).
Check Izual's life. Nudina has used Static Field to damage about 3000 life in little more than a second. What other character class can do that at level 25?
View attachment 7366
When Static Field stopped doing much, Jarulf tanked for a while. Good work, Jarulf!
Nudina found a decent and stylish staff here in the Plains. Too bad that it was off-limits for her:
View attachment 7367
There was a boss on the Plains as well:
View attachment 7368
After Jarulf took out that Doom Knight, he was pretty useless against this beast.
City of the Damned next. In all areas of the ACT IV (except the last), three monster types are drawn from a pool of 6-7 possible ones. Bosses/Champions are randomized separately. Nudina (with her lack of resistances) feared Abyss Knights in the City of the Damned. First monster type: Pit Lords. Okay, they're manageable of you keep the distance. Second type: Stygian Hags. Annoying with their breeding but also fine, again, if you keep the distance. What is the third type? Please, no Abyss Knights. Here they come:
View attachment 7369
Perfect. Also, City of the Damned feels a bit wrong without Damned, doesn't it?
This dude could not have had an easy time. Both Cursed and Damned. Poor thing!
View attachment 7370
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
River of Flame next. Same thing here - Nudina did not want any Abyss Knights. First type: Pit Lords again. Great. Next type: Urdar. OK, they are brutes but not very fast and have no ranged attack. Hopefully the third type is Maw Fiends or Blood Maggots, or at least Stranglers or Grotesques:
View attachment 7373
Those aren't maggots!
Jarulf took a serious beating but he actually survived. OK, better be extremely careful now. Three hits in a row from an Abyss Knights would mean certain death for Nudina (OK, the poison variant is wimpy but we need to watch out for the other three types). Especially the cold type is dangerous, because of the chilling.
Progress was made, albeit slowly, and it was somewhat unsafe. Nudina paused for a while to inspect a possible place to fight the Hellforge blacksmith on. This was very much to her liking:
View attachment 7374
Nudina remembered Shandor's parting words:
"Never become surrounded, always have enough mana available and above all else, don't let fat orange demons with a big hammer hit you!"
Nudina approached the forge carefully and cleaned out the enemies (including Abyss Knights. This wasn't routine in any way!). Eventually he showed up, HeyPhatso, as I call him:
View attachment 7375
It was strange, almost surreal, to see Hephasto and Jarulf walk arm in arm for a long, long stretch. Hephasto has been nerfed in the expansion. He used to be Extra Strong, Cursed and Magic Resistant. If one were Cursed, Hephasto could do over 300 damage already on Normal. Now he has Spectral Hit + Conviction, which is significantly less brutal, although Conviction gives the Spectral Hits a good bite. He still has the weird property that he runs faster the more damaged he is. Nudina got out to the small peninsula and teleported over. Hephasto never had a chance, even though it took a while to kill him:
View attachment 7376
Nudina studied the hammer, confused:
View attachment 7377
"How do you use a gadget like this?"
(Note also that she has finally scored some extra Magic Find. 13%, lucky number...)
She studied Mephisto's soulstone, the anvil and the hammer again. She swung the hammer a the stone. Nothing happened. She swung again and again. There was a light show and precious stones rained down:
View attachment 7378
It was nice to meet a creature that didn't immediately attack:
View attachment 7379
The rest of the River of Flame offered no major challenges but it still required us to be on guard against Abyss Knigths. Here Nudina rests and recovers mana while Jarulf kills three stupid Urdars:
View attachment 7380
Urdars regenerate life pretty quickly and they walked out of the picture at times. Jarulf nailed them eventually but it took several minutes.
View attachment 7373
Those aren't maggots!
Jarulf took a serious beating but he actually survived. OK, better be extremely careful now. Three hits in a row from an Abyss Knights would mean certain death for Nudina (OK, the poison variant is wimpy but we need to watch out for the other three types). Especially the cold type is dangerous, because of the chilling.
Progress was made, albeit slowly, and it was somewhat unsafe. Nudina paused for a while to inspect a possible place to fight the Hellforge blacksmith on. This was very much to her liking:
View attachment 7374
Nudina remembered Shandor's parting words:
"Never become surrounded, always have enough mana available and above all else, don't let fat orange demons with a big hammer hit you!"
Nudina approached the forge carefully and cleaned out the enemies (including Abyss Knights. This wasn't routine in any way!). Eventually he showed up, HeyPhatso, as I call him:
View attachment 7375
It was strange, almost surreal, to see Hephasto and Jarulf walk arm in arm for a long, long stretch. Hephasto has been nerfed in the expansion. He used to be Extra Strong, Cursed and Magic Resistant. If one were Cursed, Hephasto could do over 300 damage already on Normal. Now he has Spectral Hit + Conviction, which is significantly less brutal, although Conviction gives the Spectral Hits a good bite. He still has the weird property that he runs faster the more damaged he is. Nudina got out to the small peninsula and teleported over. Hephasto never had a chance, even though it took a while to kill him:
View attachment 7376
Nudina studied the hammer, confused:
View attachment 7377
"How do you use a gadget like this?"
(Note also that she has finally scored some extra Magic Find. 13%, lucky number...)
She studied Mephisto's soulstone, the anvil and the hammer again. She swung the hammer a the stone. Nothing happened. She swung again and again. There was a light show and precious stones rained down:
View attachment 7378
It was nice to meet a creature that didn't immediately attack:
View attachment 7379
The rest of the River of Flame offered no major challenges but it still required us to be on guard against Abyss Knigths. Here Nudina rests and recovers mana while Jarulf kills three stupid Urdars:
View attachment 7380
Urdars regenerate life pretty quickly and they walked out of the picture at times. Jarulf nailed them eventually but it took several minutes.
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Chaos Sanctuary, home to the toughest opponents of all, Oblivion Knigths:
View attachment 7394
They cast curses, they shoot very damaging elemental shots and they use Bone Spirit. Nudina and Jarulf came a little too close to a pack of three Oblivion Knights. They cast Lower Resist on both and started shooting. I did not react in time until Jarulf was dead and Nudina had lost almost half her life. In the words of Marius (the poor man in the game's cinematics):
"What choice did I have? I ran."
View attachment 7395
Contrary to Conviction, the effect of Lower Resist is correctly displayed here. Nudina has been hit with one fire shot. She lost 95 life and then the Energy Shield softened the shot a little (she has recovered 6 mana after the hit). Another hit would likely have been fatal.
She got even more careful from now on, and fled at the slightest sign of danger. Often, she was Lower resisted and chased by Bone Spirits:
View attachment 7396
After careful and painstaking work (yes, it felt a little like work), just the three seal bosspacks remained. With so much space available, Nudina wanted to try a new spell: Blizzard. It was really only intended as prerequisite because in the expansion, it has a casting delay of 1.8 seconds and it's therefore somewhat unreliable. Previously you could cast e.g. five Blizzards at once and cover the entire surface with ice rain. Nudina started with the Vizier's group, ran around it in circles and cast new Blizzards as soon as she could. It worked better than I had thought:
View attachment 7397
Encoraged by the success, she decided to give the Infector's group the same treatment:
View attachment 7398
No problem there either. De Seis' group now. Nudina took no chances. She opened a Town Portal, opened the seal, snuck out through the portal and returned via the waypoint in the River of Flame. Then it was much finesse work, dodging many shots and trying to get at any minion who strayed from the main pack. <2017 note: remember, the whole group are Oblivion Knights.>
Good that they have removed De Seis' annoying 'Thief' ability:
View attachment 7399
Extra Strong + Fanaticism is a lethal combination. On a melee monster pack, that is. They hit easier and can do lots of damage. But how often will De Seis or a minion in his pack hit someone? These properties are almost laughable on him. Previously, he had Conviction, which was much worse. But he's still a worthy opponent against almost any character at this stage of the game. He was killed after standing too long in Firewalls.
Nudina opened the remaining seal, took a deep breath and prepared to do battle with Big Red:
View attachment 7400
I had put a whole lot of potions in Nudinas inventory. Why be cheap in this situation? Nudina had found a Cold Resist Shrine and was therefore reasonably protected from Diablos cold-hand smackage. Hmm, even Diablo's Flame Nova stung, it's usually hardly felt with good fire resist.
In the early part of the battle, Nudina wanted to hit a couple of times with Static Field. When Diablo made a Charge, she took a chance: cast a Frost Nova, moved out of the way and followed up with three quick Statics when Diablo wondered where she went. When she tried again, he Charged her (Diablo is not Duriel, though, thankfully!), and she got a little dizzy. Diablo cast a Firestorm that Nudina was a bit late to get away from. No worries, there are full rejuves. Nudina dared not apply the Static tactics any more, instead decided to keep a greater distance to him and use Firewalls. Now and then, Diablo threw his dreaded (but somewhat nerfed in D2X) Lightning Inferno:
View attachment 7401
Here, Diablo was standing in three of Nudinas new and improved level 2 Firewalls and wailed quite a bit. This shower of Lightning Inferno led to a quick escape and more rejuve drinking. The battle continued. There were more fireworks, "NOT EVEN DEATH CAN SAVE YOU FROM ME!" etc. but now Nudina was now warmed up (in more than one way, and yet she has no clothes!). Diablo was dead, he just did not know it yet. Nudina wanted to finish the fight in style and chose (as a tribute to the game developer) to finish him off with a hail of Blizzards:
View attachment 7402
----------------------------------------------------------------
When I started Nudina, I couldn't have hoped that she would defeat Diablo. I am not sure if any of my softcore characters had even defeated him in Normal without dying themselves. Wow.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Two Prime Evils down. Only that slippery fellow Baal left.
Some dangers await in the final act, but now the pace will decrease, the dangers will be fewer and Nudina will gain level-ups at a rate she has not done since the beginning of Act II.
She will see you "The Promised Land of Unending Sorceress Candy", ACT V
View attachment 7394
They cast curses, they shoot very damaging elemental shots and they use Bone Spirit. Nudina and Jarulf came a little too close to a pack of three Oblivion Knights. They cast Lower Resist on both and started shooting. I did not react in time until Jarulf was dead and Nudina had lost almost half her life. In the words of Marius (the poor man in the game's cinematics):
"What choice did I have? I ran."
View attachment 7395
Contrary to Conviction, the effect of Lower Resist is correctly displayed here. Nudina has been hit with one fire shot. She lost 95 life and then the Energy Shield softened the shot a little (she has recovered 6 mana after the hit). Another hit would likely have been fatal.
She got even more careful from now on, and fled at the slightest sign of danger. Often, she was Lower resisted and chased by Bone Spirits:
View attachment 7396
After careful and painstaking work (yes, it felt a little like work), just the three seal bosspacks remained. With so much space available, Nudina wanted to try a new spell: Blizzard. It was really only intended as prerequisite because in the expansion, it has a casting delay of 1.8 seconds and it's therefore somewhat unreliable. Previously you could cast e.g. five Blizzards at once and cover the entire surface with ice rain. Nudina started with the Vizier's group, ran around it in circles and cast new Blizzards as soon as she could. It worked better than I had thought:
View attachment 7397
Encoraged by the success, she decided to give the Infector's group the same treatment:
View attachment 7398
No problem there either. De Seis' group now. Nudina took no chances. She opened a Town Portal, opened the seal, snuck out through the portal and returned via the waypoint in the River of Flame. Then it was much finesse work, dodging many shots and trying to get at any minion who strayed from the main pack. <2017 note: remember, the whole group are Oblivion Knights.>
Good that they have removed De Seis' annoying 'Thief' ability:
View attachment 7399
Extra Strong + Fanaticism is a lethal combination. On a melee monster pack, that is. They hit easier and can do lots of damage. But how often will De Seis or a minion in his pack hit someone? These properties are almost laughable on him. Previously, he had Conviction, which was much worse. But he's still a worthy opponent against almost any character at this stage of the game. He was killed after standing too long in Firewalls.
Nudina opened the remaining seal, took a deep breath and prepared to do battle with Big Red:
View attachment 7400
I had put a whole lot of potions in Nudinas inventory. Why be cheap in this situation? Nudina had found a Cold Resist Shrine and was therefore reasonably protected from Diablos cold-hand smackage. Hmm, even Diablo's Flame Nova stung, it's usually hardly felt with good fire resist.
In the early part of the battle, Nudina wanted to hit a couple of times with Static Field. When Diablo made a Charge, she took a chance: cast a Frost Nova, moved out of the way and followed up with three quick Statics when Diablo wondered where she went. When she tried again, he Charged her (Diablo is not Duriel, though, thankfully!), and she got a little dizzy. Diablo cast a Firestorm that Nudina was a bit late to get away from. No worries, there are full rejuves. Nudina dared not apply the Static tactics any more, instead decided to keep a greater distance to him and use Firewalls. Now and then, Diablo threw his dreaded (but somewhat nerfed in D2X) Lightning Inferno:
View attachment 7401
Here, Diablo was standing in three of Nudinas new and improved level 2 Firewalls and wailed quite a bit. This shower of Lightning Inferno led to a quick escape and more rejuve drinking. The battle continued. There were more fireworks, "NOT EVEN DEATH CAN SAVE YOU FROM ME!" etc. but now Nudina was now warmed up (in more than one way, and yet she has no clothes!). Diablo was dead, he just did not know it yet. Nudina wanted to finish the fight in style and chose (as a tribute to the game developer) to finish him off with a hail of Blizzards:
View attachment 7402
----------------------------------------------------------------
When I started Nudina, I couldn't have hoped that she would defeat Diablo. I am not sure if any of my softcore characters had even defeated him in Normal without dying themselves. Wow.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Two Prime Evils down. Only that slippery fellow Baal left.
Some dangers await in the final act, but now the pace will decrease, the dangers will be fewer and Nudina will gain level-ups at a rate she has not done since the beginning of Act II.
She will see you "The Promised Land of Unending Sorceress Candy", ACT V
Last edited:
- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Nudina arrived at the Barbarian stronghold Harrogath at level 26 with the following stats and skills:
STR 10, DEX 25, VIT 75, ENE 100, Life 215, Mana 215
Frozen Armor 1 (not used)
Shiver Armor 1
Icebolt 1 (not used)
Ice Blast 1 (not used)
Frost Nova 1
Glacial Spike 3
Blizzard 1
Charged Bolt 1 (not used)
Lightning 1
Chain Lightning 1
Static Field 3
Telekinesis 1 (very rarely used)
Teleport 1
Energy Shield 3 (absorbs 30% of the damage and consumes twice the absorbed damage from mana. Example: A monster hits with 100 damage. Nudina loses 70 life and 60 (30 * 2) mana)
Warmth 5 (mana recovers 78% faster)
Inferno 1 (not used)
Blaze 1
Fire Wall 2
The welcome was even worse than in Lut Gholein. Nihlathak made Drognan look like a well-spoken diplomat:
View attachment 7408
The other residents was friendly, though.
The final act is very much a dream for a Sorceress. Many opponents are slow and melee-only. The terrain is often to one's advantage, with ledges etc. In addition, in some areas the game provides you with tanks, in the form of barbarians. This is particularly true in the first part (Bloody Foothills) but there are also a few barbarians here and there in three other areas. When they help out, one can easily just burn the opposition:
View attachment 7409
The only danger in the Bloody Foothills was the catapults. The poison- and fire variants were particularly tough. Nudina eventually reached the end of the Foothills and the boss she had been given the task to kill:
View attachment 7410
The green opponents are Enslaved, the first variant of a very common monster type of in ACT V. They can be ”pumped” by an overlord type of monster. In the first stage, they become faster and their hits hurt more. This stage is shown by the red stuff underneath the monster (as on the one furthest to right). In the next stage they mutate and get inflated with an explosive gas (like the reddish one). These are like Goblin Sappers in Warcraft, they want to blow themselves up next to you. You don't want that to happen, it hurts. But they have a delay: they explode shortly after you touch them, so if you're quick, you have a chance to get away from the explosion (but you get no XP for it if that happens). A bug makes them explode right away if they turn into a "blaster" while fighting as the regular version. This is no problem for Nudina, who wants to keep the distance to them anyway.
Bloody Foothills done. On to Frigid Highlands and the first encounter in the form of an Extra Fast bosspack. Nudina took them out with Blizzard:
View attachment 7411
ACT V has no less is than 5 "bonus dungeons", areas you do not need to enter to progress with the main quest (actually, make that 6 if you don't count side quests either). It would be a mistake to skip them. The battles are often cooler than the usual grind. In Abbadon in Frigid Highlands, Nudina fought the most dangerous monster type in the act, minotaurs. She did not mind taking advantage of them being more brutal than smart:
View attachment 7412
Nudina found a regular War Staff without any +skills. She decided to let Larzuk do the socketing he had promised Nudina after she killed Shenk the Overseer. This reward is one of the best in the game. You get one socket if you do it in a Set/Rare/Crafted/Unique item. If you do it in a magical item, you get one or two sockets (a 50/50-chance). In a non-magical item, you usually
<2017 note: looks like didn't know about the ilvl categories>
get the maximum number of sockets for the item type. So it was for Nudina:
View attachment 7413
The idea was to stuff Magic Find jewels in this big staff. She thought it was pretty ugly so she kept it in her weapon switch. Also note that Nudina now has two rings (with Magic Find).
Nudina continued through Arreat Plateu (with bonus dungeon) to the Crystalline Passage, a place with more hectic fighting pace and less space. But what was this?
View attachment 7414
Evil Urns make a bosspack (or a champion). In that case, minotaurs. Yikes!
View attachment 7415
Nudina ran immediately (and as you can see, she was also ready with Teleport). Still, two of them landed hits on her (you can see that they have been chilled by her Shiver Armor). Fortunately, Nudina had a long escape route at hand.
Frozen Terrors are so slow that Blaze was still useful. Even minions (double life compared to normal monsters) succumbed after they walked in a stretch of 5x Blaze:
View attachment 7416
This was down in the Frozen River. A woman named Anya was said to be trapped there. Indeed, she was frozen and was guarded by a bosspack led by the monster I think has the coolest name of all:
View attachment 7417
Another poster group for the 'Sitting Duck' expression.
STR 10, DEX 25, VIT 75, ENE 100, Life 215, Mana 215
Frozen Armor 1 (not used)
Shiver Armor 1
Icebolt 1 (not used)
Ice Blast 1 (not used)
Frost Nova 1
Glacial Spike 3
Blizzard 1
Charged Bolt 1 (not used)
Lightning 1
Chain Lightning 1
Static Field 3
Telekinesis 1 (very rarely used)
Teleport 1
Energy Shield 3 (absorbs 30% of the damage and consumes twice the absorbed damage from mana. Example: A monster hits with 100 damage. Nudina loses 70 life and 60 (30 * 2) mana)
Warmth 5 (mana recovers 78% faster)
Inferno 1 (not used)
Blaze 1
Fire Wall 2
The welcome was even worse than in Lut Gholein. Nihlathak made Drognan look like a well-spoken diplomat:
View attachment 7408
The other residents was friendly, though.
The final act is very much a dream for a Sorceress. Many opponents are slow and melee-only. The terrain is often to one's advantage, with ledges etc. In addition, in some areas the game provides you with tanks, in the form of barbarians. This is particularly true in the first part (Bloody Foothills) but there are also a few barbarians here and there in three other areas. When they help out, one can easily just burn the opposition:
View attachment 7409
The only danger in the Bloody Foothills was the catapults. The poison- and fire variants were particularly tough. Nudina eventually reached the end of the Foothills and the boss she had been given the task to kill:
View attachment 7410
The green opponents are Enslaved, the first variant of a very common monster type of in ACT V. They can be ”pumped” by an overlord type of monster. In the first stage, they become faster and their hits hurt more. This stage is shown by the red stuff underneath the monster (as on the one furthest to right). In the next stage they mutate and get inflated with an explosive gas (like the reddish one). These are like Goblin Sappers in Warcraft, they want to blow themselves up next to you. You don't want that to happen, it hurts. But they have a delay: they explode shortly after you touch them, so if you're quick, you have a chance to get away from the explosion (but you get no XP for it if that happens). A bug makes them explode right away if they turn into a "blaster" while fighting as the regular version. This is no problem for Nudina, who wants to keep the distance to them anyway.
Bloody Foothills done. On to Frigid Highlands and the first encounter in the form of an Extra Fast bosspack. Nudina took them out with Blizzard:
View attachment 7411
ACT V has no less is than 5 "bonus dungeons", areas you do not need to enter to progress with the main quest (actually, make that 6 if you don't count side quests either). It would be a mistake to skip them. The battles are often cooler than the usual grind. In Abbadon in Frigid Highlands, Nudina fought the most dangerous monster type in the act, minotaurs. She did not mind taking advantage of them being more brutal than smart:
View attachment 7412
Nudina found a regular War Staff without any +skills. She decided to let Larzuk do the socketing he had promised Nudina after she killed Shenk the Overseer. This reward is one of the best in the game. You get one socket if you do it in a Set/Rare/Crafted/Unique item. If you do it in a magical item, you get one or two sockets (a 50/50-chance). In a non-magical item, you usually
<2017 note: looks like didn't know about the ilvl categories>
get the maximum number of sockets for the item type. So it was for Nudina:
View attachment 7413
The idea was to stuff Magic Find jewels in this big staff. She thought it was pretty ugly so she kept it in her weapon switch. Also note that Nudina now has two rings (with Magic Find).
Nudina continued through Arreat Plateu (with bonus dungeon) to the Crystalline Passage, a place with more hectic fighting pace and less space. But what was this?
View attachment 7414
Evil Urns make a bosspack (or a champion). In that case, minotaurs. Yikes!
View attachment 7415
Nudina ran immediately (and as you can see, she was also ready with Teleport). Still, two of them landed hits on her (you can see that they have been chilled by her Shiver Armor). Fortunately, Nudina had a long escape route at hand.
Frozen Terrors are so slow that Blaze was still useful. Even minions (double life compared to normal monsters) succumbed after they walked in a stretch of 5x Blaze:
View attachment 7416
This was down in the Frozen River. A woman named Anya was said to be trapped there. Indeed, she was frozen and was guarded by a bosspack led by the monster I think has the coolest name of all:
View attachment 7417
Another poster group for the 'Sitting Duck' expression.
Last edited:
Google