Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
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Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Jerhyn's Palace wasn't too difficult overall. I never faced any of those sneaky archers that sometimes give me trouble down there. (You know, those clever type that like to lurk just inside the doorway.) Lots of enemy mages though, thankfully, especially weak poison mages. No match for my team! Typical for any walled area, I needed frequent teleports to keep my guys focused. Here's an example of a teleported mage-stack grouped behind me: the flailing "pinwheel-o-death". My own personal multi-shot mowing them down! But there were some tough areas too, against invaders and brute bosses. Nothing a nice bottleneck couldn't solve.
Clearing the Arcane Sanctuary was a real treat. With all my ranged attackers, there were no worries about blocking anyone's path. First a quick teleport to set up a nice perch, then relax and let them rack up kills. The ghosts in particular were dominated. I decided to clear the whole area at p3. A couple of the platform superchests rolled rare quality, alas, the loot was all junk. I did get a belt upgrade, a perfect plated belt of the whale (+100), which exceeded my +99 belt.
I teleport-bombed the Summoner, he actually blocked some of his guards on the stairs. Easy as pie.
With some new PGems, I tried a couple more charm rerolls. First try was a perfect Lucky GC of Balance. C'mon, bring me some luck! Second try, oh man, now that's just mean. :ziplip:
Next session, I began the Canyon. My golem and merc were seriously outgunned by some champ beetles and brutes. I tried a new direction, and luckily found plenty of maggot larvae for summoning a new army.
Duriel's tomb was first. The first hallway had a double boss-pack of Gorebellies, which pounded my golem and skellies into oblivion. I took three quick teleports to another hallway, and fortunately left the bosses in the dust. Ugh... more gorebellies, but not as dangerous. After killing them, I had a foothold. I improved my belt again, with another unexpected field drop: a Cobalt (26) Demonhide Sash of the Whale (93). Nice, usually I have to shop a lot for a belt like that.
I tried Duriel at p3. The fire golem faltered, I could tell he'd croak soon, so I switched from Lower Resist to Decrep. Not good enough, so I switched to Gumby. Much better! In fact, I was able to go back to LR. Duriel was feeling the pain, he didn't last long. This time, I brought my MF armors for the kill, but all I got was Goblin Toe.
Next tomb was Kaa's, quite a bit smaller than average. We found him guarded by some gorebellies. No problem. In the neighboring wing, more nasty gorebelly bosses challenged us again. These guys are everywhere!
It was nice to know that the two big tombs were out of the way. The remaining five were densely packed, but at least they were small. I couldn't believe how many difficult gorebellies spawned, yet again. I think they appeared in each tomb. I'd been snapping some screens of them, now I made sure to document them all. There were too many battles to describe, all sorts of Fanaticism, Cursed, champions etc... here's a recap. Basically I switched to the gumby for a lot of those battles. He can usually tank long enough for the mages to score a few kills. Plus he's recastable mid-battle, unlike the FG who requires mana buffing in town. Overall I'm still using FG 99%, and I'm grateful for his damage which is increasing with each point.
Jolt did his part, dutifully blocking the mummy caskets, and suffering some poison damage. What a noble sacrifice for his team!
Hmm... one last casket to block... um, maybe not! I will sit this one out. :yes:
The last sparkly rolled unique quality, netting an ethereal Deathspade. Bah, wasted potential.
Additional finds:
Cunning Amulet of Life Everlasting (19)
Baezil's Vortex
Gavel of Pain
Fal rune
Spiderweb Sash of Ages :unimpressed:
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 81, Act 3 Hell, Kurast Docks[/highlight]
Jerhyn's Palace wasn't too difficult overall. I never faced any of those sneaky archers that sometimes give me trouble down there. (You know, those clever type that like to lurk just inside the doorway.) Lots of enemy mages though, thankfully, especially weak poison mages. No match for my team! Typical for any walled area, I needed frequent teleports to keep my guys focused. Here's an example of a teleported mage-stack grouped behind me: the flailing "pinwheel-o-death". My own personal multi-shot mowing them down! But there were some tough areas too, against invaders and brute bosses. Nothing a nice bottleneck couldn't solve.
Clearing the Arcane Sanctuary was a real treat. With all my ranged attackers, there were no worries about blocking anyone's path. First a quick teleport to set up a nice perch, then relax and let them rack up kills. The ghosts in particular were dominated. I decided to clear the whole area at p3. A couple of the platform superchests rolled rare quality, alas, the loot was all junk. I did get a belt upgrade, a perfect plated belt of the whale (+100), which exceeded my +99 belt.
I teleport-bombed the Summoner, he actually blocked some of his guards on the stairs. Easy as pie.
With some new PGems, I tried a couple more charm rerolls. First try was a perfect Lucky GC of Balance. C'mon, bring me some luck! Second try, oh man, now that's just mean. :ziplip:
Next session, I began the Canyon. My golem and merc were seriously outgunned by some champ beetles and brutes. I tried a new direction, and luckily found plenty of maggot larvae for summoning a new army.
Duriel's tomb was first. The first hallway had a double boss-pack of Gorebellies, which pounded my golem and skellies into oblivion. I took three quick teleports to another hallway, and fortunately left the bosses in the dust. Ugh... more gorebellies, but not as dangerous. After killing them, I had a foothold. I improved my belt again, with another unexpected field drop: a Cobalt (26) Demonhide Sash of the Whale (93). Nice, usually I have to shop a lot for a belt like that.
I tried Duriel at p3. The fire golem faltered, I could tell he'd croak soon, so I switched from Lower Resist to Decrep. Not good enough, so I switched to Gumby. Much better! In fact, I was able to go back to LR. Duriel was feeling the pain, he didn't last long. This time, I brought my MF armors for the kill, but all I got was Goblin Toe.
Next tomb was Kaa's, quite a bit smaller than average. We found him guarded by some gorebellies. No problem. In the neighboring wing, more nasty gorebelly bosses challenged us again. These guys are everywhere!
It was nice to know that the two big tombs were out of the way. The remaining five were densely packed, but at least they were small. I couldn't believe how many difficult gorebellies spawned, yet again. I think they appeared in each tomb. I'd been snapping some screens of them, now I made sure to document them all. There were too many battles to describe, all sorts of Fanaticism, Cursed, champions etc... here's a recap. Basically I switched to the gumby for a lot of those battles. He can usually tank long enough for the mages to score a few kills. Plus he's recastable mid-battle, unlike the FG who requires mana buffing in town. Overall I'm still using FG 99%, and I'm grateful for his damage which is increasing with each point.
Jolt did his part, dutifully blocking the mummy caskets, and suffering some poison damage. What a noble sacrifice for his team!
Hmm... one last casket to block... um, maybe not! I will sit this one out. :yes:
The last sparkly rolled unique quality, netting an ethereal Deathspade. Bah, wasted potential.
Additional finds:
Cunning Amulet of Life Everlasting (19)
Baezil's Vortex
Gavel of Pain
Fal rune
Spiderweb Sash of Ages :unimpressed:
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 81, Act 3 Hell, Kurast Docks[/highlight]
Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
My mages didn't seem to be bothered by the critters in the Spider Forest. They calmly stood their ground, firing at mosquitos, hawks, and flayers. Jolt sat back and watched leisurely. No real threats here.
We descended into the spider caves, prepared for some potentially tough battles. Well, it turned out to be a rather easy clear! For sure, some of the spider packs hit hard and caused some super-poisonings, but overall they were vulnerable to our elemental attacks and didn't last long. Even the deadly Ssark gang (which was assisted by a poison spider boss), fell quickly. By the time my surviving skeletons dropped dead from poison, the spiders were already killed.
The Great Marsh had gloams, lots of 'em. Numerous bosses, with some scary mods. I had to regularly replace lost mages. Even Flux died, and I can't remember the last time that happened. However, the gloams had the same weakness as the spiders: frailty against elements. The battles were tense, but usually brief.
They were joined by flayers, and a bunch of those frog demons that like to pop out and surprise you (that is, if their aura doesn't betray their presence).
While cashing in on some loot, I scanned Ormus and found an Unearthed wand. Just the type I need for some rerolls! After a few rolls, I came so close to a jackpot item: Mojo (+2 summoning) with +1 mage, +1 golem mastery, and 2 sockets! Dammit, if that had been one summoning point higher, I would've had my 13th mage! :\
I rolled most of my remaining chips, and ended up with a decent result: Golemlord's with 2 sockets, but no staffmods. My current Golemlord's has +1 Lower Resist. Basically I'm trading the point in LR for 2 sockets, which I'll be happy to do once Fire Golem is maxed and I have a free point to make up for it (Izual reward).
Speaking of Fire Golem, his damage is now averaging ~1000 per hit, with the aura kicking in another meager ~100 per pulse. Not too shabby, he really makes his presence felt. I still need to break out Gumby every now and then, but that's rare. One such instance occurred in the Swampy Pit. After dealing with more nasty gloams (which wiped out half my crew), we ran into a quadruple boss pack intersection on level 2! The first two packs were bats, and not very notable. Fortunately we killed most of them by the time boss #3 arrived. This new guy was ridiculous. His lightning bolts alone wiped out my mages. My golem was crushed. I had to resummon what I could, and call upon Gumby. Using multiple teleports, I scrambled for a position away from the bolt streams. Just as I was getting a handle on things, in walks boss #4. Same species, same room, same Conviction, same name! That's the second time Jolt has seen such a bizarre coincidence, it also happened back in Act 1.
onder:
Fortunately Gumby blocked him perfectly, and my remaining mages finished him off.
Flayer Dungeon was much easier. Doll-bust avoidance was my highest priority. Ghosts, as usual, had no chance. Lower Resist crushes them. I can really notice the difference if I lapse in applying this curse. Often I can break the primary and/or secondary immunities of regular monsters and bosses. Many times this will allow us to poison or chill our enemies, in addition to the extra damage. "Possessed" monsters are the toughest. Their curse immunity allows them to last much longer than other champions.
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 82, Act 3 Hell, Lower Kurast[/highlight]
My mages didn't seem to be bothered by the critters in the Spider Forest. They calmly stood their ground, firing at mosquitos, hawks, and flayers. Jolt sat back and watched leisurely. No real threats here.
We descended into the spider caves, prepared for some potentially tough battles. Well, it turned out to be a rather easy clear! For sure, some of the spider packs hit hard and caused some super-poisonings, but overall they were vulnerable to our elemental attacks and didn't last long. Even the deadly Ssark gang (which was assisted by a poison spider boss), fell quickly. By the time my surviving skeletons dropped dead from poison, the spiders were already killed.
The Great Marsh had gloams, lots of 'em. Numerous bosses, with some scary mods. I had to regularly replace lost mages. Even Flux died, and I can't remember the last time that happened. However, the gloams had the same weakness as the spiders: frailty against elements. The battles were tense, but usually brief.
They were joined by flayers, and a bunch of those frog demons that like to pop out and surprise you (that is, if their aura doesn't betray their presence).
While cashing in on some loot, I scanned Ormus and found an Unearthed wand. Just the type I need for some rerolls! After a few rolls, I came so close to a jackpot item: Mojo (+2 summoning) with +1 mage, +1 golem mastery, and 2 sockets! Dammit, if that had been one summoning point higher, I would've had my 13th mage! :\
I rolled most of my remaining chips, and ended up with a decent result: Golemlord's with 2 sockets, but no staffmods. My current Golemlord's has +1 Lower Resist. Basically I'm trading the point in LR for 2 sockets, which I'll be happy to do once Fire Golem is maxed and I have a free point to make up for it (Izual reward).
Speaking of Fire Golem, his damage is now averaging ~1000 per hit, with the aura kicking in another meager ~100 per pulse. Not too shabby, he really makes his presence felt. I still need to break out Gumby every now and then, but that's rare. One such instance occurred in the Swampy Pit. After dealing with more nasty gloams (which wiped out half my crew), we ran into a quadruple boss pack intersection on level 2! The first two packs were bats, and not very notable. Fortunately we killed most of them by the time boss #3 arrived. This new guy was ridiculous. His lightning bolts alone wiped out my mages. My golem was crushed. I had to resummon what I could, and call upon Gumby. Using multiple teleports, I scrambled for a position away from the bolt streams. Just as I was getting a handle on things, in walks boss #4. Same species, same room, same Conviction, same name! That's the second time Jolt has seen such a bizarre coincidence, it also happened back in Act 1.
onder:Fortunately Gumby blocked him perfectly, and my remaining mages finished him off.
Flayer Dungeon was much easier. Doll-bust avoidance was my highest priority. Ghosts, as usual, had no chance. Lower Resist crushes them. I can really notice the difference if I lapse in applying this curse. Often I can break the primary and/or secondary immunities of regular monsters and bosses. Many times this will allow us to poison or chill our enemies, in addition to the extra damage. "Possessed" monsters are the toughest. Their curse immunity allows them to last much longer than other champions.
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 82, Act 3 Hell, Lower Kurast[/highlight]
Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
I nearly forgot one my screenshots, grabbed by complete accident, and perhaps the rarest sight in Jolt's career?????
Is Flux, the trusty lightning mage, actually be using his sword in melee fashion? I've heard this was possible but never really witnessed it.
Eh... better stick with the lightning, Flux, before you hurt yourself.
I nearly forgot one my screenshots, grabbed by complete accident, and perhaps the rarest sight in Jolt's career?????
Is Flux, the trusty lightning mage, actually be using his sword in melee fashion? I've heard this was possible but never really witnessed it.
Eh... better stick with the lightning, Flux, before you hurt yourself.
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Ha ha. Well, you aren't imagining things, I've seen it happen. Relative frequencies of attack, charged bolt and lightning are 10:60:30. 1 in 10 chance of using his sword. That's after a monster gets within range and if his (range attacker) retreat AI doesn't trigger first, so it doesn't happen very often. I saw it happen a few times with the lightning mage that accompanied my zeal/conviction paladin, that's because monsters got within his range a lot more often as I didn't have pets (and because the screen was rarely as chaotic as those in your pics!)
It's only 1 in 31 for cold mages. The freezing effect also ensures monsters get within range far less often.
EDIT: good luck with the temples. After that it should be mostly plain sailing in the outdoor areas until mid-act 5.
I nearly forgot one my screenshots, grabbed by complete accident, and perhaps the rarest sight in Jolt's career?????
Is Flux, the trusty lightning mage, actually be using his sword in melee fashion? I've heard this was possible but never really witnessed it.
Eh... better stick with the lightning, Flux, before you hurt yourself.
Ha ha. Well, you aren't imagining things, I've seen it happen. Relative frequencies of attack, charged bolt and lightning are 10:60:30. 1 in 10 chance of using his sword. That's after a monster gets within range and if his (range attacker) retreat AI doesn't trigger first, so it doesn't happen very often. I saw it happen a few times with the lightning mage that accompanied my zeal/conviction paladin, that's because monsters got within his range a lot more often as I didn't have pets (and because the screen was rarely as chaotic as those in your pics!)
It's only 1 in 31 for cold mages. The freezing effect also ensures monsters get within range far less often.
EDIT: good luck with the temples. After that it should be mostly plain sailing in the outdoor areas until mid-act 5.
lionheartthebrave
New member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
FELE cursed gloam:shocked:
FECE MR gloam :eeeeekk!!:
Conviction LE boss :thumbsdown:, two of them together:crazyeyes:
Great write up IW, good luck with the dolls/council
FELE cursed gloam:shocked:
FECE MR gloam :eeeeekk!!:
Conviction LE boss :thumbsdown:, two of them together:crazyeyes:
Great write up IW, good luck with the dolls/council
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Yes great write-up Wayne.
Looking at those monsters mods makes me cringe. Now i am not really familiar with Hell as i have only been there once in HC and the last time in SC was about 2-3 years ago. But i am not liking the look of things. If i ever make it that far with Lurtz my Bowbarb, i can tell i will be in for many long, long, long, long fights...:nervous:.
Yes great write-up Wayne.
Looking at those monsters mods makes me cringe. Now i am not really familiar with Hell as i have only been there once in HC and the last time in SC was about 2-3 years ago. But i am not liking the look of things. If i ever make it that far with Lurtz my Bowbarb, i can tell i will be in for many long, long, long, long fights...:nervous:.
Last edited:
Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
There was no way I'd be missing out on extra Lower Kurast treasure, so I went to p3 despite the presence of very annoying Zealots and Apes. Whenever they were slivered and tried to flee, I had to teleport-bomb them for a finishing salvo. It's expensive, but the loot more than compensated.
The rest of Kurast contained thorned hulks. Some of the boss packs required tanking duty from Gumby. Although I have only 1 point in Clay Golem, with all my full-time +skills I can summon him with over 10,000 life! If that's not enough, recast.
[highlight]Kurast Temples:[/highlight]
Disused Fane: minor stairtrap of Wailing Beasts. No problem, they are susceptible to elements.
Ruined Temple: stairtrap of poison spiders on one side. Not too bad, but they were immediately joined by a boss pack of hardy beasts. With Magic Resistance, CE, and Spectral Hit (all of which boost resistances), they were tougher to kill. Fortunately my army also has good resists, and we outlasted them.
Forgotten Temple: stairtrap of normal bats on one side, no big deal. I saw some champion beetles advancing from the other direction, and blocked them in the doorway with a quick golem cast.
Forgotten Reliquary: safely cleared.
Ruined Fane: a few bats/snakes close to the entrance. No cause for alarm.
Disused Reliquary: immediate stairtrap of boss-pack snakes! Very nasty, I took a couple hard hits. A lucky shrine placement partially deflected them. I cast Terror, but they were all pretty much sandwiched against us, soon backed up by champion beetles and regular archers. The good news is that snakes don't have much life. Whatever minion of mine they happened to stun, the rest continued to fire, killing them quickly.
Down in the Sewers, we faced an easy draw of mosquitoes, mummies, and bats. The sparkly chest rolled rare quality, but only 2 items total. As usual, I went to p8 for level 2. It was clear of monsters. None of the bountiful loot was useful for Jolt, but the resale value was excellent!
The Travincal heirophants were a challenge. My best strategy was to teleport-bomb them and wipe them out first. Not exactly safe, but it worked. I lack even a single spare skill point for Dim Vision, but that may change if I see them as guest monsters in Act 5. The Council was no picnic either. They moved around a lot and picked off lots of mages. The fire golem tanked well against them, laughing at their hydras. He may be weaker than Clay against most monsters, but he has his shining moments, against shamen infernos, vampire spells, balrogs, etc.
Meph's Durance levels had some tense moments due to boss maulers and dolls. I faced them on level 1 and 2. Many of the battles spread out sloppily, requiring frequent teleports to tidy up. I never figured teleporting tightly into a corner would be wise, but it is actually the safest method for Jolt. I'm careful to squeeze furthest into the corner, because if I'm targeted, it's very difficult to cast uninterrupted.
I went to p3 before entering Meph's area. No problems reaching him. Meph soon killed the fire golem. When I cast Gumby, Meph and my army shifted around a bit, alerting the vampires at the top of the chamber. This was a disaster, too many of my mages were scattering and dying. I retreated with a series of teleports. Meph cat a far-reaching Blizzard which flattened every last one of my mages! :embarassed: Fortunately I was not hit!
I had to scour the area for some "permanent" corpses. (For some reason, certain random corpses stick around forever.) I roused enough to finish the job. When Meph was slivered, I dressed in maximum MF, but his drop sucked.
No good finds lately, here's a couple decent charms:
Garnet (12) LC of Storms (1-38)
Serpent's (32) LC of Sustenance (18) <--- this I equipped
Also, Flux has benefited from some upgrades.
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 83, Act 4 Hell, Pandemonium Fortress[/highlight]
There was no way I'd be missing out on extra Lower Kurast treasure, so I went to p3 despite the presence of very annoying Zealots and Apes. Whenever they were slivered and tried to flee, I had to teleport-bomb them for a finishing salvo. It's expensive, but the loot more than compensated.
The rest of Kurast contained thorned hulks. Some of the boss packs required tanking duty from Gumby. Although I have only 1 point in Clay Golem, with all my full-time +skills I can summon him with over 10,000 life! If that's not enough, recast.
[highlight]Kurast Temples:[/highlight]
Disused Fane: minor stairtrap of Wailing Beasts. No problem, they are susceptible to elements.
Ruined Temple: stairtrap of poison spiders on one side. Not too bad, but they were immediately joined by a boss pack of hardy beasts. With Magic Resistance, CE, and Spectral Hit (all of which boost resistances), they were tougher to kill. Fortunately my army also has good resists, and we outlasted them.
Forgotten Temple: stairtrap of normal bats on one side, no big deal. I saw some champion beetles advancing from the other direction, and blocked them in the doorway with a quick golem cast.
Forgotten Reliquary: safely cleared.
Ruined Fane: a few bats/snakes close to the entrance. No cause for alarm.
Disused Reliquary: immediate stairtrap of boss-pack snakes! Very nasty, I took a couple hard hits. A lucky shrine placement partially deflected them. I cast Terror, but they were all pretty much sandwiched against us, soon backed up by champion beetles and regular archers. The good news is that snakes don't have much life. Whatever minion of mine they happened to stun, the rest continued to fire, killing them quickly.
Down in the Sewers, we faced an easy draw of mosquitoes, mummies, and bats. The sparkly chest rolled rare quality, but only 2 items total. As usual, I went to p8 for level 2. It was clear of monsters. None of the bountiful loot was useful for Jolt, but the resale value was excellent!
The Travincal heirophants were a challenge. My best strategy was to teleport-bomb them and wipe them out first. Not exactly safe, but it worked. I lack even a single spare skill point for Dim Vision, but that may change if I see them as guest monsters in Act 5. The Council was no picnic either. They moved around a lot and picked off lots of mages. The fire golem tanked well against them, laughing at their hydras. He may be weaker than Clay against most monsters, but he has his shining moments, against shamen infernos, vampire spells, balrogs, etc.
Meph's Durance levels had some tense moments due to boss maulers and dolls. I faced them on level 1 and 2. Many of the battles spread out sloppily, requiring frequent teleports to tidy up. I never figured teleporting tightly into a corner would be wise, but it is actually the safest method for Jolt. I'm careful to squeeze furthest into the corner, because if I'm targeted, it's very difficult to cast uninterrupted.
I went to p3 before entering Meph's area. No problems reaching him. Meph soon killed the fire golem. When I cast Gumby, Meph and my army shifted around a bit, alerting the vampires at the top of the chamber. This was a disaster, too many of my mages were scattering and dying. I retreated with a series of teleports. Meph cat a far-reaching Blizzard which flattened every last one of my mages! :embarassed: Fortunately I was not hit!
I had to scour the area for some "permanent" corpses. (For some reason, certain random corpses stick around forever.) I roused enough to finish the job. When Meph was slivered, I dressed in maximum MF, but his drop sucked.
No good finds lately, here's a couple decent charms:
Garnet (12) LC of Storms (1-38)
Serpent's (32) LC of Sustenance (18) <--- this I equipped
Also, Flux has benefited from some upgrades.
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 83, Act 4 Hell, Pandemonium Fortress[/highlight]
Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
First thing I saw in Act 4: big fat corpse-spitters! These guys have a ton of life. I was worried they would take forever, but the mages did very well against them. It helped that I could break their poison immunity and prevent their healing. Helpless leapers and ineffective Venom Lords (which healed the fire golem) rounded out the draw. Safe and easy clear of the Outer Steppes.
Plains of Despair: more Venom Lords, wimpy Stranglers, and Doom Knights. The latter type was considerably tougher than anything else up to this point. Their poison and physical damage demanded some respect.
Once again, the mages' effectiveness surprised me, against Izual. He went down faster than some of the resistant bosses I've faced. His resists must not be very good. It's nice when all your missiles are auto-hit. AR and monster defense/blocking are meaningless.
More stranglers populated the City of the Damned. Ha, this is too easy! Then I saw the dreaded spawners! I though for sure, this time, my team would falter. How could we possibly keep up with all those baby spawner births? Well, I was proved wrong yet again. I noticed three factors that helped us against them:
1. Spawners move around a lot. Many of them ended up hit by PMH poison, without any effort on my part.
2. Flux's lightning pierced through the distracting pups, taking a heavy toll on the mothers.
3. Plentiful pup corpses provided all the fodder I needed my keeping my army maximized at all times.
I certainly wouldn't say that we excelled against them, but it was far less burdensome than I feared.
The other notable monsters were Abyss Knights. Mage vs. mage. There were several boss packs of them. Some I had to lure towards the pup corpse piles, for mid-battle reinforcements. Good thing I had them available, some of those knights took out all my skeletons in a few seconds.
More spawners on the River of Flame, plus maggots! What a mess...
It took a while to churn through, but there was never a shred of danger. Hephasto came running out early, crushing my skellies. No worries, I had dozens of corpses available. While my team mopped up the forge area, I shattered the Soulstone. Pffft, lame drop, that's no help at all.
Before entering the CS, I equipped my new wand. I placed a reward skillpoint in LR, to get back to lvl 5. The fire resist jewel will be handy against Diablo. Also, I tried my final imbue, on a necro head. Not bad, +5 Bone Spear, but definitely not suitable for Jolt.
The CS wasn't easy, but it was nice not to worry about IM! Oblivion Knights were eventually chased down (sometimes I teleported in front of them). We hit a huge mass of monsters at the start of De Seis' wing. Boss Knights and two boss Venom Lords, among other regular monsters. The fire golem succumbed to poison. I retreated and cast Gumby, forming a bottleneck at the star point.
De Seis spawned with the Tri-fecta: Fanaticism Extra Strong Cursed. The skeletons were pretty much vaporized as they turned the corner. I ran out there to cast Terror and take heat off the golem. In all the chaos and obscuring graphics, I failed to notice Terror had pinballed one minion towards me. One hit took off about 2/3 my life. By the time I realized what happened, he swung again. Either he missed, or I squeaked away in time! It was close. I think he may have been out of Fanat range, which probably saved my life. I had to teleport across the lava and retreat, luring the minions in small packs. As usual, De Seis ran to his corner.
Eager for some extra XP, I spawned the remaining seal packs at p8. The Grand Vizier was tolerable, but my plan back-fired against the Infector. Unbreakable FILI + Spectral! All we could do was peck away with some cold damage, after summoning as many extra cold mages as possible. It still took about 10 minutes. :embarassed:
I went to p3 for Diablo. His lightning caught the fire golem right away, but the mages carried on without him, slivering him in reasonable time. With max MF equipped for the kill, his drop was garbage. No luck from the Act Bosses lately. I'm on a bit of a dry spell for good items. :bored:
Best of Act 4:
Crow Caw
Immortal King's War Gauntlets
Steel (36) SC of Storms (1-22)
a couple weird rares, +103 max damage?! :badteeth:
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 83, Act 5 Hell, Harrogath[/highlight]
First thing I saw in Act 4: big fat corpse-spitters! These guys have a ton of life. I was worried they would take forever, but the mages did very well against them. It helped that I could break their poison immunity and prevent their healing. Helpless leapers and ineffective Venom Lords (which healed the fire golem) rounded out the draw. Safe and easy clear of the Outer Steppes.
Plains of Despair: more Venom Lords, wimpy Stranglers, and Doom Knights. The latter type was considerably tougher than anything else up to this point. Their poison and physical damage demanded some respect.
Once again, the mages' effectiveness surprised me, against Izual. He went down faster than some of the resistant bosses I've faced. His resists must not be very good. It's nice when all your missiles are auto-hit. AR and monster defense/blocking are meaningless.
More stranglers populated the City of the Damned. Ha, this is too easy! Then I saw the dreaded spawners! I though for sure, this time, my team would falter. How could we possibly keep up with all those baby spawner births? Well, I was proved wrong yet again. I noticed three factors that helped us against them:
1. Spawners move around a lot. Many of them ended up hit by PMH poison, without any effort on my part.
2. Flux's lightning pierced through the distracting pups, taking a heavy toll on the mothers.
3. Plentiful pup corpses provided all the fodder I needed my keeping my army maximized at all times.
I certainly wouldn't say that we excelled against them, but it was far less burdensome than I feared.
The other notable monsters were Abyss Knights. Mage vs. mage. There were several boss packs of them. Some I had to lure towards the pup corpse piles, for mid-battle reinforcements. Good thing I had them available, some of those knights took out all my skeletons in a few seconds.
More spawners on the River of Flame, plus maggots! What a mess...
It took a while to churn through, but there was never a shred of danger. Hephasto came running out early, crushing my skellies. No worries, I had dozens of corpses available. While my team mopped up the forge area, I shattered the Soulstone. Pffft, lame drop, that's no help at all.
Before entering the CS, I equipped my new wand. I placed a reward skillpoint in LR, to get back to lvl 5. The fire resist jewel will be handy against Diablo. Also, I tried my final imbue, on a necro head. Not bad, +5 Bone Spear, but definitely not suitable for Jolt.
The CS wasn't easy, but it was nice not to worry about IM! Oblivion Knights were eventually chased down (sometimes I teleported in front of them). We hit a huge mass of monsters at the start of De Seis' wing. Boss Knights and two boss Venom Lords, among other regular monsters. The fire golem succumbed to poison. I retreated and cast Gumby, forming a bottleneck at the star point.
De Seis spawned with the Tri-fecta: Fanaticism Extra Strong Cursed. The skeletons were pretty much vaporized as they turned the corner. I ran out there to cast Terror and take heat off the golem. In all the chaos and obscuring graphics, I failed to notice Terror had pinballed one minion towards me. One hit took off about 2/3 my life. By the time I realized what happened, he swung again. Either he missed, or I squeaked away in time! It was close. I think he may have been out of Fanat range, which probably saved my life. I had to teleport across the lava and retreat, luring the minions in small packs. As usual, De Seis ran to his corner.
Eager for some extra XP, I spawned the remaining seal packs at p8. The Grand Vizier was tolerable, but my plan back-fired against the Infector. Unbreakable FILI + Spectral! All we could do was peck away with some cold damage, after summoning as many extra cold mages as possible. It still took about 10 minutes. :embarassed:
I went to p3 for Diablo. His lightning caught the fire golem right away, but the mages carried on without him, slivering him in reasonable time. With max MF equipped for the kill, his drop was garbage. No luck from the Act Bosses lately. I'm on a bit of a dry spell for good items. :bored:
Best of Act 4:
Crow Caw
Immortal King's War Gauntlets
Steel (36) SC of Storms (1-22)
a couple weird rares, +103 max damage?! :badteeth:
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 83, Act 5 Hell, Harrogath[/highlight]
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Excellent progress Wayne......:thumbup:.
Well done getting through those "tough" battles, and especially against Big D.
One more Act to go, and i think you won't have any problems at all.
GO JOLT GO!!!!!
Excellent progress Wayne......:thumbup:.
Well done getting through those "tough" battles, and especially against Big D.
One more Act to go, and i think you won't have any problems at all.
GO JOLT GO!!!!!
lionheartthebrave
New member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Act5 already, great progress Insane Wayne :thumbsup:
I would guess that the rare has fools+grinding, but I'm sure I read a post by RTB that says that's not possible
How long did big D take? I'm sure that Baal has a lot more life
Good luck with the guest monsters, and the frenzytaurs:gulp:
Act5 already, great progress Insane Wayne :thumbsup:
I would guess that the rare has fools+grinding, but I'm sure I read a post by RTB that says that's not possible
How long did big D take? I'm sure that Baal has a lot more life
Good luck with the guest monsters, and the frenzytaurs:gulp:
Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
. This is how it looks in GoMule:
Fiend Stinger
Scimitar
One Hand Damage: 2 - 99
Durability: 13 of 22
Required Level: 37
Required Dexterity: 21
Fingerprint: 0xae849383
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
10% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
5% Chance to cast level 3 Lightning on attack
93 to Maximum Damage (Based on Char Lvl)
309 to Attack Rating (Based on Char Lvl)
Screenshot again (top item). The +max damage seems to disagree with GoMule readout, whatever that means...onder:
According to screenshot time stamps, the total battle time was about 2 minutes. Pretty fast considering that I had more cold mages than usual. (They were left over from the Infector battle, and do much less damage than fire/lightning mages).lionheartthebrave said:
If that's true, then it's a bugged item... or he's incorrect (dare I suggest it? :hammerheadlionheartthebrave said:
. This is how it looks in GoMule:Fiend Stinger
Scimitar
One Hand Damage: 2 - 99
Durability: 13 of 22
Required Level: 37
Required Dexterity: 21
Fingerprint: 0xae849383
Item Level: 94
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Properties:
10% Increased Attack Speed
+2 to Combat Skills (Paladin Only)
5% Chance to cast level 3 Lightning on attack
93 to Maximum Damage (Based on Char Lvl)
309 to Attack Rating (Based on Char Lvl)
Screenshot again (top item). The +max damage seems to disagree with GoMule readout, whatever that means...
onder:
jiansonz
New member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Sure looks like Fool´s + Grinding. +103 max fits with (0.5+0.75)*character level.
The source I usually rely on for affix stuff (d2data.net) does not mention Grinding anywhere, so I do not know which affix group it belongs to.
Fool´s is in the King´s affixes group (+%ED and +AR).
Maybe you should bring this to the Statistics forum?
Sure looks like Fool´s + Grinding. +103 max fits with (0.5+0.75)*character level.
The source I usually rely on for affix stuff (d2data.net) does not mention Grinding anywhere, so I do not know which affix group it belongs to.
Fool´s is in the King´s affixes group (+%ED and +AR).
Maybe you should bring this to the Statistics forum?
Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Incredible stuff wayne, I've got a fishymancer just getting to the ancients, and this stuff was hard enough with the ultimate cookie cutter, let alone with you're crazy underpowered builds. I hope you have better drops on your way to Baal, recently you've been in a bit of a hole.
Good luck and keep it coming!!
Incredible stuff wayne, I've got a fishymancer just getting to the ancients, and this stuff was hard enough with the ultimate cookie cutter, let alone with you're crazy underpowered builds. I hope you have better drops on your way to Baal, recently you've been in a bit of a hole.
Good luck and keep it coming!!
OldSoldier1
New member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Good work, Wayne, and keep it up! I also had a Fool's + Grinding weapon in a tournament. I gambled for it in the Barb Thrower tournament, and used it right up to the end in most normal situations.
Good work, Wayne, and keep it up! I also had a Fool's + Grinding weapon in a tournament. I gambled for it in the Barb Thrower tournament, and used it right up to the end in most normal situations.
lionheartthebrave
New member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Yeah I was wrong w.r.t fools +grinding
Yeah I was wrong w.r.t fools +grinding
Insane Wayne
Active member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Jolt appreciated the "decorative" corpses upon entering the Bloody Foothills. He used them to raise several mages, no kills required! I soon had a full army to face the frustrating imps and quill rats. Rat needles in particular are hard to see with all the missiles flying around.
I circled around Shenk and flushed him out from above. He came streaking out at us ahead of his minions, to his doom.
The remaining outdoor areas had the common mixture of imps, slingers, boars, mages, and Burning Archers. Jolt decided to steer clear of the Conviction FE Spectral Hit archers. But to the Fire Golem, they were merely pesky flies. Most of the monsters were FI. I compensated by excluding fire mages from my line-up.
Abaddon had those insufferable witches, the difficult evasive amping type. Many of them were wasted drops, killed while hovering over the lava. Pit of Acheron had the easier type of temptresses. None of the monster combinations were too dangerous.
Thresh Socket and the golem duked it out, beast vs. beast. It ended in a tie, both expired at the same moment.
Stairtrap alert in the Crystalline Passeage: snow beasts, frozen horrors, and boss Claw Vipers. A little Terror helped out, the golem was able to withstand the pounding.
Drops are still down a bit. Plenty of elite items but nothing amazing. I found some OK wyrmhide boots. Not too many S/Us though: I found Deathbit, Fleshrender, and a unique ring (crappy Manald
).
I haven't give up on MF though. I used my final socket quest to improve my body armor. I also added a cold resist jewel into the second socket of my wand (fire resist in the other socket).
Bring on some Frenzytaurs!!!! :devil: :evil: :devil:
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 83, Act 5 Hell, Frozen River[/highlight]
Jolt appreciated the "decorative" corpses upon entering the Bloody Foothills. He used them to raise several mages, no kills required! I soon had a full army to face the frustrating imps and quill rats. Rat needles in particular are hard to see with all the missiles flying around.
I circled around Shenk and flushed him out from above. He came streaking out at us ahead of his minions, to his doom.
The remaining outdoor areas had the common mixture of imps, slingers, boars, mages, and Burning Archers. Jolt decided to steer clear of the Conviction FE Spectral Hit archers. But to the Fire Golem, they were merely pesky flies. Most of the monsters were FI. I compensated by excluding fire mages from my line-up.
Abaddon had those insufferable witches, the difficult evasive amping type. Many of them were wasted drops, killed while hovering over the lava. Pit of Acheron had the easier type of temptresses. None of the monster combinations were too dangerous.
Thresh Socket and the golem duked it out, beast vs. beast. It ended in a tie, both expired at the same moment.
Stairtrap alert in the Crystalline Passeage: snow beasts, frozen horrors, and boss Claw Vipers. A little Terror helped out, the golem was able to withstand the pounding.
Drops are still down a bit. Plenty of elite items but nothing amazing. I found some OK wyrmhide boots. Not too many S/Us though: I found Deathbit, Fleshrender, and a unique ring (crappy Manald
).I haven't give up on MF though. I used my final socket quest to improve my body armor. I also added a cold resist jewel into the second socket of my wand (fire resist in the other socket).
Bring on some Frenzytaurs!!!! :devil: :evil: :devil:
[highlight]Conqueror Jolt, Lord of Mages/Fire Golem necro, level 83, Act 5 Hell, Frozen River[/highlight]
sirpoopsalot
New member
Re: Conqueror Jolt, the Elemental Necro, HC vanilla untwinked single-pass
Compared to some of your previous projects, it sounds like this one is still rolling along fairly well...
... and to think that I abandoned pretty much this exact build in Act2 Hell because it was too slow my tastes (I used an Act1 'Harmony' Rogue instead, with no skellie-warriors for tanking, and most importantly, I was heavily-twinked softcore instead of untwinked hardcore)...
..."different strokes for different folks," I guess.
Of course, even if this build seems somewhat more powerful (for you) than I'm used to, one thing that hasn't changed is the enjoyableness of your writeup(s). Great work once again, and good luck the rest of the way.
Compared to some of your previous projects, it sounds like this one is still rolling along fairly well...
... and to think that I abandoned pretty much this exact build in Act2 Hell because it was too slow my tastes (I used an Act1 'Harmony' Rogue instead, with no skellie-warriors for tanking, and most importantly, I was heavily-twinked softcore instead of untwinked hardcore)...
..."different strokes for different folks," I guess.
Of course, even if this build seems somewhat more powerful (for you) than I'm used to, one thing that hasn't changed is the enjoyableness of your writeup(s). Great work once again, and good luck the rest of the way.
