Lots of forum activity pushed this thread to page three. I couldn't make an update this weekend because the computers in my house are all having connectivity issues right now. Alas, Moe has moved forward, and this is his continuing story.
I was speaking before about how Confuse tended to bring enemies from all parts of the map, and
here is a showing of it. I casted it on a group of four skeletons, and before I knew it, I'd gotten a couple of dozen in the fight. Now, they don't do enough damage (at least on /P8) to actually help any, except for the clumping. And most melee enemies tend to stay in one place so the rogue merc can focus her attention on them one at a time. It's slow, but sure.
A nice feature of Confuse is that
Unravelers no longer resurrect their buddies when there are other buddies around; they try to kill them. Even when I cannot actually curse the unravelers, but there are cursed minions around, they'll not raise more. I learned a lot about the skill, realizing then that even monsters not cursed will attack those that are, especially if they are physically closer than my team.
This is a shot in the
arcane sanctuary, which was actually somewhat dangerous. The wraiths would come to join the party from several screens away, and since they'd take the direct route, it sometimes caused some issues. Since I was pumping Confuse to a decent level to keep the time on it high, and Golem Mastery to actually get some hit points into my Rusty, CE was still very low and useless on /P8, even in fairly tight clumps. The Confuse cannot be overwritten by other curses, which is highly interesting as well, but it works two ways. I have a level 7 Confuse. It lasts for 22 seconds. No matter what you do, that confusion lasts for 22 seconds. It cannot be refreshed until it expires. A monster cursed with Amp Damage or Decrepify, on top of the Confuse, remains both Confused and Amped. I noticed this when Rusty was battling two enemies, and I amped them for quicker dispatching from the Rogue. They continued to fight each other, even when amped. Now we're getting somewhere. It is dangerous though if I don't sequence the Confusion well. As more monsters show up, certainly they aren't Confused even though they'll attack the confused ones. Casting Confuse on them now creates multiple levels of the curse which expire at different times.
The trek wasn't all bad. My first
green breastplate took until the Great Marsh to drop. I didn't even make a Rusty out of it.
This is a shot of the
stairtrap that I talked about earlier with Sarina. I've kept Terror on a hotkey and will have that or Confuse on each time I descend some stairs. Getting the book was easy once I commenced
messing with their minds.
Here is a shot of the fight with
Mephisto and the Blood Lords. Wyand must have already died, as did the Rusty. I did get a screenshot of him before biting the dust but I didn't see Wyand in that one either and this showed the Blood Lords better.
So now that I've caught everyone up with pictures, we'll move on to the Outer Steppes. It was pretty tedious. The main monster type was leapers, who don't sit still for a proper beat down very well. Check out the
Insane Leaper Posse. They weren't hard by any stretch but jumped around so much that the merc couldn't target them without switching constantly. There is no front line with leapers, even with a tank. My CE was still too low to help, so it was just time to grin and bear it.
The Plains of Despair held
burning souls but they weren't any trouble when Confused. I think clearing will be pretty fast with a 9 yard CE radius when I come back here again; kill one, amp the confused beasties, CE bomb the whole neighborhood. With so many enemies coming to join the party, I'll only be clearing a few spots in each map area.
I thought that the Chaos Sanctuary would be pretty easy. For the most part it was, but some of the monsters didn't follow their Confused fellows in other areas. Especially Infector's pack. I thought it would be a cakewalk; Confuse the whole pack, watch them melt each other. Instead, they ran around so fast that they came at us anyway and smoke the golem and merc in seconds. Several times. Eventually I led them all the way back to the narrow hallway in the area leading up to the pentagram and killed them 1-2 at a time there.
Diablo dropped a
Blacktongue, which I've never gotten before in HC. I muled it off in case I want it for later.
Act V was fairly uneventful, if a bit slow, at least until the end. I decided to pump CE early, as I knew that NM would be painful without it. So all points in act V went into the corpse bomb. It is in tune with the essence of the tournament anyway. The only thing that happened to me that got me wondering about this build was the opening to one of the bonus areas.
This Champion Frenzytaur stairtrap had me spinning my wheels a bit. They chewed through the golem's HP pretty fast, and I wanted to keep him alive for the damage return. I amped them to double the return, but had to return to town several times to keep Rusty alive, coming back through hot portals each time. I ended up prevailing but in later difficulties I see this being a problem, as any AI curses are useless. Perhaps Decrepify would be a good alternative, but I did not try it here. That wouldn't even work on a Possessed anyway. I predict that a situation like this will be Moe's downfall.
Does CoS work against Champions if I make a Nadir helm?
I did the minions at /P8. Lister was a pain but I kept it high because I knew the experience would be sweet. The merc alone couldn't do much against their regeneration, so I had to help with my rare throwing axes. I love them because they are called Skull Mangler, and they carry poison damage to help in situations like that. A perfect name for a weapon in this tournament! I went down to /P1 for Baal. I had a level 6 gumby and Decrepify at level 4 from a yew wand that I had charsi imbue that gave +3 to it. Despite moving so much slower, Baal still cloned himself 4 times, but we got him. He dropped a 38% MF Langer Briser, which Moe will put on for the extra 18% over the Milabrega's shield. That puts him over 200% for every kill, with another 78% when Gaile gets the kill (which is most of the time unless using CE). So far my drops have been very poor for the amount of MF. But NM is where it is at for magic finding, anyway. Nihlathak did drop the General's flail, which is a sweet Rusty weapon. Low damage but 50% slow makes it like a mid-level Gumby with damage return. I've stashed that for hell difficulty, when I've maxed out the mastery.
Skills are as follows:
1 in each golem skill (I got Fire Golem specifically to handle Ventar and he worked beautifully, so I'll use Sparky to help against all inferno type enemies.
10 in Golem Mastery
3 in Summon Resist
7 in Confuse
1 in Attract
1 in Decrepify
18 in Corpse Explosion (I'll max this out with the DoE and next level up)
Moe has also found a Thul and an Amn in Act V, so he'll be on the lookout for a 4 os sword to make a Spirit. Because, seriously, 3 CE bombs deplete his mana bulb, and that's just ridiculous.
Gaile is using a cedar bow I rerolled with chips. It has a flawless sapphire and a +13 max damage jewel in it. She still takes about 5-6 hits to kill things, even when they are amped. I have to work on that.
[highlight]Destroyers Moe, Rusty, and Gaile, level 47 Golemancer and team, NM Rogue Encampment[/highlight]
