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Conqueror Cosmo, 1.11 vanilla HC naked Druid [by Insane Wayne]
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Jaedhann said:Wow Insane Wayne. your stories get better every time. This thread together with DD's is one of my favorite reads here in the forums. Good luck in the plains of dispair, i think that will be your first 'real' challenge.
Keep 'em coming
-Jae
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Insane Wayne said:Jemali really likes his new Bonehew/Twitchthroe combo, and is grateful for the Amn's 7% life leech! (his first full-time LL thus far). We entered the Travincal (via waypoint) at p7, and he got to try his new gear for about 20 seconds, before dropping dead. A double boss pack of zealots and vampires did the trick. After a hasty retreat, we tried again, and fought tooth-and-nail in the cramped waypoint room. I kept Jemali upright with lots of purples. We gradually thinned out the crowd and worked on the main offender. A few minutes later, we had an identical problem. Nasty vampires assisted by a Cursed Heirophant + zealots. Spot-casting ravens onto the individual vampires helped reduce the incoming fire. Heirophants are very dangerous! Deeply negative cold resistance is suicide against their blizzards. I blinded them at long range, and generally lagged far behind my pack.
Council Members were lured out in small groups. Regular members can be blinded, and boulders kept them spaced apart. At p7, I didn't want them healing each other. No problems beating them. Total time for a p7 full clear: 39 minutes.
Tough monster roll for Durance level 1: vampires, undead dolls, and big bad maulers. Soon we faced a Conviction vampire plus maulers, and I had to spend extra time and care pulling them apart. Wolves have no chance of survival against a whole group like that.
We made pretty good progress at p7. Maulers have knockback, which can move Jemali around and cause him to attack new targets (while the original heals). I spent a lot of effort reducing that. Whenever he got into trouble, I fed him a couple rejuvs until the monster he was attacking was dead. Then I pulled him to safety and reset out positions. Rejuvs are plentiful enough for me to "waste" them occasionally.
My level 86 skill point went to Hurricane. I never planned to use this skill, but after putting a point in Twister (Armor synergy and mini-stun defensive value) it made sense to open Tornado (armor synergy) and finally Hurricane (armor and Arctic Blast synergy). After reading about this skill, I thought it might function like a swirling weak Holy Freeze. meh... not quite. The cold bursts are very short. Still, the double-synergy value is nice.
I ran into a Stone Skin vampire boss who was practically PI. I broke out the Scythe with ctc Amp, which worked wonderfully. Amp would trigger and I'd immediately swap to Bonehew, and mix in a little Malice OW in between. After a couple quick cycles, the vampire died in about 20 seconds. I know it sounds crazy to swap around 3 merc weapons against one boss, but the alternative at p7 is to sit and wait 15 minutes for Open Wounds to work. No thanks. It's the price I pay for having no elemental damage.
Total time for a p7 full clear: 50 minutes.
Durance level 2 had mummies instead of vampires, and the boss mods were brutal! Jemali nearly fell to a CE Cursed doll. Twice, he was down to zero visible life in between rejuvs. Even I took a hit during the mayhem. I cast non-stop wolves to absorb most of the damage, finally luring them off the merc. Later, an Extra Strong Cursed doll scared the crap out of me. I was in narrow hallway, while my troops battled normal mummies. My view was partialy blocked by the wall. I sensed something zip by me. It came from behind along a path I already cleared, and brushed past me. It killed the vine, amping us as I identified it. Whoa! My vine must have teleported into the neighboring room and woken it up. Once it targeted the vine, its pathfinding took it on a crazy route to get it. I was the next target, so I ran and dragged the fight into a large open room.
The main event was a Cursed Extra Strong Mauler! That's some serious power. I miscast Arctic Blast, and accidently ran too close. Wham! Nearly half my bulb was gone, and I was knocked back into a large dead-end room. 3 hits from his pack would probably kill me. I scrambled to get up a portal, and used the main entrance to try again. No problems this time as I pinned him in a narrow spot.
The map layout was perfect. The WP and level 3 entrance are right next to each other. Total time for a p7 full clear: 1 hour 48 minutes.
lol, I just realized that I'm Cursed in every screenshot.
Latest finds:
Small Charm of Vita (17). (Cosmo's fourth small vita charm. Grrr...)
Sol and 2 Thuls. Now I can cube a Shael, if need be. Regarding my rune stash, I said earlier that I could cube a Lum if I find either an Io or a Dol. I was way off! I got my runes confused... I still need 2 Ios. I don't even have a single Hel.
Conqueror Cosmo, 1.11 naked HC Druid, level 86, Act 3 Hell, Durance Level 3
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Cygnus said:Wow, just wow. I expected p7 full clears to be snail-slow, but those clear times are incredibly... quick. I don't have a good idea of how long it takes to full clear Durance 2, but 39 minutes for Trav. is awesome, what with the Hierophants healing everything in sight and the vampires running away to heal and the council having to be broken up. I think I've spent that much time on p1 just to separate a Hierophant champ pack in the centre of the area.
I think that neatly sums it up. My brain refuses to process anything more complicated that sitting around and waitingInsane Wayne said:
Wayne, I don't understand why you choose to play at p7. If it's monster drops, p5, or even p3, would be nearly as good. If it's exp (crucial for raven blinding, I think), you should be playing on p8
You repeatedly mention wolf recasts to absorb damage. Do you also recast ravens to target specific monsters?
I'd love to see a video of you clearing a small, dense area like a Kurast temple or an act 5 ice cave.
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Cygnus said:Wow, just wow. I expected p7 full clears to be snail-slow, but those clear times are incredibly... quick. I don't have a good idea of how long it takes to full clear Durance 2, but 39 minutes for Trav. is awesome, what with the Hierophants healing everything in sight and the vampires running away to heal and the council having to be broken up. I think I've spent that much time on p1 just to separate a Hierophant champ pack in the centre of the area./quote]
Ravens are the answer. When my wolves clash with a bunch of zealots, I rarely fight them at that spot. Instead I immediately pull my troops back and coax the zealots out of heirophant range. It takes 10 seconds. When heavily damaged, their instinct is to flee, but they're not going anywhere while blinded. Quick kills. Heiro healing is a very rare event. After killing the zealots, I blind the heiros (usually in pairs) so they won't heal each other (or cast blizz or teleport).
You mentioned vampires. With them it's the same deal. While blinded, they can't run away to heal, or cast ranged spells. Poison stops their regen, and they're crippled. It's an exaggeration for me to say they all line up neatly to die, but as long as I blind a few of them (especially the one Jemali's woking on) they're rarely a problem. Imagine the time savings when you take away monsters' fleeing/healing behaviors. Sometimes my system breaks down due to powerful boss mods and too much going on at once. That's when things get sloppy, as safety becomes more important than efficiency.
Breaking up the council: 1-2 minutes per batch. Again, no fleeing/healing among the normal members. Boss members were boxed in.
Incidentally, I did face a champ pack of heiros. After killing the zealots, I cast wolves next to the champs (to prevent blizzards). Then I used boulders to separate them. One boulder provides several knockbacks. There was a little healing going on but not too much.
I always play Norm and NM at p8. In Hell, I strike a balance between killing power, safety, impatience, and greed. Greed (along with a sense of personal challenge) is the major factor. Jemali's rockin and rollin with ~3300 max damage, and his weapon never stops. Boss drops may not differ much between p3 and p7, but the normal monsters drop more stuff at p7. Exp is also a significant factor. The difference between p1 and p8 Hell full clear is about 6 levels. Between p7 and p8 is maybe one level. More levels = more life, better skills, etc...Cygnus said:Wayne, I don't understand why you choose to play at p7. If it's monster drops, p5, or even p3, would be nearly as good. If it's exp (crucial for raven blinding, I think), you should be playing on p8
All the time. I call it "spot-casting" (as opposed to casting them any ol' place and letting them fly around). I'm not sure if I picked up that term around here, or if I just made it up. It works fairly well, although not reliably against monsters on the very edge of the screen.Cygnus said:
My computer can capture good quality video/sound, but can't self-capture D2 without lag. I can run D2 on my other comp and capture with my main, but the gameplay "feels" different and I don't want to risk it. I'll do it if I make Guardian.Cygnus said:
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Insane Wayne said:I buckled down for a p7 clear of the Outer Steppes. None of the Act 4 monster types are natively PI, so I hope to go p7 all the way. We explored quite a bit before seeing any monsters, and ran into an ambush. A leaper boss pack led the charge, skittering all around us and wreaking havoc. Ravens pecked at a few, but were distracted by regular knights and corpse-spitters. Retreat!
Those little leaper minions hit hard. I pulled eveyone back to the steps. I watched from my cozy spot while Jemali handled everything. I used wolves to box out certain monsters and let others in. When we were free to explore again, I idly cast a hurricane. The damage is negligible, and the graphic can be distracting, but I noticed something awesome right away. Leapers can't penetrate the hurricane's perimeter! Even if they jump at me, they're instantly knocked outside its radius when they land. Also, it will pin them against a wall (just like Arctic Blast does). I'm glad to find a use for this skill beyond the synergy value.
Corpse-spitters at p7 are tough to kill. For one thing, they're immune to poison, so I make sure Jemali lands an occasional shot with Malice to stop their healing. Also, I use a vine to devour the nearby corpses, because a corpse-spitter will eat them up and gain a massive life boost. Lastly, they're physical-resistant, negating lots of Jemali's damage. I hit a Stone Skin (PI) boss, and unpacked the amp stick. It worked so well, it became a full-time practice against all champs/bosses.
Melee knight packs are also difficult, because they poison their targets which greatly reduces the wolves' tankability. Even with life leech, Jemali can't handle more than two. I used raven blinding and/or boulders to separate them, offering myself as bait. I bet that Fanat boss got pretty pissed at me.
Next up, the Plains! How about a little Burning Soul lightning action?
First monster type: Venom Lords. Pfftt! Diablo will have to do better than that.
Second type, Doom Casters. I love these guys. Practically harmless and easy to kill.
Last chance for souls... nope. By that point, I'd already traveled down the edge of the map a bit without encountering lightning. So I figured the souls would be a no-show. It's kind of a let-down; I was pumped up for the challenge. Perhaps Cosmo will see them later in his adventures.
Izual got the amp treatment, with Hone Sundan for damage. Pushover.
The City of the Damned rattled me. I had a few close calls, against Abyss Knights and Dark Familiars (bats). Cosmo's worst NDE yet occurred against a pack of Knights. While mopping up some weak stranglers, I noticed a dense group of Knights "dancing". They were all repeating their ranged firing motion in perfect unison, rocking back and forth, but no shots came out! It looked hilarious. In reality, their shots were invisible (a group bug I guess) and when I tried to grab a screenshot, I was blasted by a full volley. I slammed a purple, but not before noticing my life was down to a few hundred, tops. Maybe less, there was very little red. I guess I have Cyclone Armor to thank, again. We regrouped and approached the pack, and they began behaving normally. My theory is the display bug was related to Multishot graphic overload, but who knows. Lesson learned.
The stupid bats are midnight blue/black, and hard to detect until they drop on you. Usually, my ravens flush them out, or one of the many wolf scouts I cast far ahead of me. During a tense battle with a brutal Knight pack, I strayed towards a spot I thought was clear, and a bat pack descended on me. I was very close to a full mobbing, losing my cyclone armor and going into hit recovery once. One or two had hit me, and I scrambled away before the rest of the pack reached me. Phew...
Looking forward to Hellforge!
Conqueror Cosmo, 1.11 naked HC Druid, level 86, Act 4 Hell, River of Flame
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Insane Wayne said:I was impatient to get to the Forge, but I stuck to my p7 game-plan, entering into the River of Flame. Stranglers again? Sweet! And some urdars too. They can be difficult, but I made good progress. Then I hit the maggots.
They're harmless, but I had a tough time managing them, time-wise. I blinded the big maggots, but the little ones kept Jemali away and eventually all the eggs were laid. Usually I had no choice but to wait for all the babies to perish before we could get the mothers.
The forge was in the last place I checked, drawing out my suspense. Hephasto came charging out, and when I saw his mods, I knew I was in for a long battle. I went back to town and fetched the amp stick, Malice, and Hone Sundan.
Problem: Heph was tearing through my wolves at an incredible pace! And he targeted the merc frequently, putting him in the red zone. I had to pull back and reset the position too often, and we made little progress.
Solution: Add the Kelpie Snare to the mix. A little intermittent slowing allowed time for efficient weapon switching, barely.
So there I was, rapidly alternating four weapons for Jemali, keeping Heph bleeding, slowed, amped, and suffering semi-Crushing Blows. It worked (very slowly) and the battle lasted 17 minutes.
Now for the reward, a shiny new rune! So many helpful possibilities...
Noooooo!!!!! I got the minimum! Well, it could be worse. At least I finally have a Hel, in case I need to re-socket something. Jemali's gear will stay the same: Bonehew/Twitchthroe/Shako, and that ain't bad...
Conqueror Cosmo, 1.11 naked HC Druid, level 86, Act 4 Hell, Chaos Sanctuary
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