- Jun 11, 2018
- 654
- 9
- 3
Over the last few months I’ve encountered a few sources of inspiration for making this character, leading me to halt my “Family Sept” for the time being. First, I loved playing my first ever bowazon, Lena the WWS strafer, and second, I’ve read through @Gynli's posts in the Untwinked 99er thread (at least twice) and have really enjoyed seeing the progress with the aptly named “Amazon” currently sitting at level 97 in the charts. In particular I find the idea of taking a character that initially is so weak (untwinked, at least) and turning it into a powerhouse. Finally, my wife needled me about constantly twinking all of my characters, pointing out that it takes the challenge out of the game. She also tried to get me to use the in-game stash only, but I’m too much of a hoarder for that so GoMule stays! And, of course, that UT99er thread just seems too fun to not participate. Thus, Eternity was born.
My intention is to update this walkthrough thread periodically until I reach the hell Ancients’ Way waypoint, at which point I will end the WT and transfer Eternity to the untwinked 99er thread (a similar format to what @sir_cyclops is doing with Devi). I have no idea if I will ever even get close to 99, but that’s the goal. I just expect that it will take an Eternity to get there (if I ever do). I am primarily interested in sharing thoughts and ideas as I go through and develop this character.
Starting out, I had a rough idea of my plan for progressing through normal and nightmare at /p8 (except /p3 bosses and /p1 Countess reruns), and at the time of this posting Eternity is actually toiling in Act 1 NM, having executed my plan with success thus far. My first few updates will hopefully come roughly once per week until I catch up to where I currently am in the game, at which point the updates will likely be more sporadic as playtime allows. So, onto the first update!
So it begins…
Eternity started off with her standard stack of javelins but ditched them as soon as she found a bow. She also found a nifty jewel in the Den of Evil but I stashed it away for my twinking collection.
I’m always looking for more of these.
Eternity continued on in rather unspectacular fashion, with her damage slowly but steadily rising thanks to Magic Arrow. The low damage on all early-game bows made my strategy quite straightforward: Once I found a 3os Hunter’s Bow, I dropped in 3 chipped rubies and used MA full-time. This setup gave me the fastest attack speed bow to go with the raw damage afforded by the rubies and MA, thus maximizing my DPS. I went with rubies over topazes due to the tighter damage range, Andariel’s vulnerability to fire, and the increased strain on my topaz budget early on due to the potential for magic find armor and helms. This bow easily carried me through the rest of Act 1.
Once I reached the Black Marsh waypoint, I toned down the players setting to 1 and proceeded to run the Countess until I had a sizeable rune pile ready for Act 2. I wanted enough runes readily available to make Zephyr, 2x Stealth, Malice, and a few other things. This stop didn’t take very long and served me quite well in speeding up the next act. No other notable finds during this foray, although I did find one unique monster that had a name I myself have used in real life recently:
Ah, Soul Eater… the name I have occasionally given one of my children when being particularly loud and difficult.
One comment Gynli made to someone else in the UT99er thread about starting a bowazon really piqued my interest – focusing on Magic Arrow early on for the raw +damage bonus. Plus, a mana cost of zero and no need for arrows are two very nice bonuses early on. For fun, and because normal difficulty is generally pretty safe/easy, I took this to the extreme, and poured my first 20 points straight into Magic Arrow. By the time I faced Andariel, I had a maxed skill.
Character level 20 = level 20 Magic Arrow. Pretty decent damage for this stage!
(As an aside, I intend to leave Hell Ancients for level 98, so that leaves me with 3 respecs before then. Once a decent bow is found I will respec Eternity to a strafe/MS/valk/passives zon with enough hard points in strength to eventually wield a Grand Matron Bow. Later when more gear is gathered I will begin optimizing skill and stat points accordingly.)
Thanks to the strength of this skill relative to the stage of the game I was at, Andariel fell easily and dropped rubbish as usual.
At least the gem was a topaz! The bow was crap.
Most surprising of all was that my Rogue survived the fight without anyone tanking and with junk gear. She must’ve just lucked out and avoided any of Andariel’s poison attacks. I finished Act 1 at level ~20.8, having conquered all side areas, killed all Superuniques, and touched all waypoints. This is the highest I’ve finished Act 1 in quite a while, and although I generally aim for level 20 at the end of the act I suspect the Countess reruns bumped me up closer to 21.
Well, that’s all for the first update. Hopefully it generates some interest, and I would love feedback on the content/narrative. The Act 2 update will have a lot more discussion about gear choices moving forward; I’ve found that considering and prioritizing certain things (such as IAS) can make a big difference in early game bowazon effectiveness. Plus the magic finding game gets going in earnest.
My intention is to update this walkthrough thread periodically until I reach the hell Ancients’ Way waypoint, at which point I will end the WT and transfer Eternity to the untwinked 99er thread (a similar format to what @sir_cyclops is doing with Devi). I have no idea if I will ever even get close to 99, but that’s the goal. I just expect that it will take an Eternity to get there (if I ever do). I am primarily interested in sharing thoughts and ideas as I go through and develop this character.
Starting out, I had a rough idea of my plan for progressing through normal and nightmare at /p8 (except /p3 bosses and /p1 Countess reruns), and at the time of this posting Eternity is actually toiling in Act 1 NM, having executed my plan with success thus far. My first few updates will hopefully come roughly once per week until I catch up to where I currently am in the game, at which point the updates will likely be more sporadic as playtime allows. So, onto the first update!
So it begins…
Eternity started off with her standard stack of javelins but ditched them as soon as she found a bow. She also found a nifty jewel in the Den of Evil but I stashed it away for my twinking collection.
I’m always looking for more of these.
Eternity continued on in rather unspectacular fashion, with her damage slowly but steadily rising thanks to Magic Arrow. The low damage on all early-game bows made my strategy quite straightforward: Once I found a 3os Hunter’s Bow, I dropped in 3 chipped rubies and used MA full-time. This setup gave me the fastest attack speed bow to go with the raw damage afforded by the rubies and MA, thus maximizing my DPS. I went with rubies over topazes due to the tighter damage range, Andariel’s vulnerability to fire, and the increased strain on my topaz budget early on due to the potential for magic find armor and helms. This bow easily carried me through the rest of Act 1.
Once I reached the Black Marsh waypoint, I toned down the players setting to 1 and proceeded to run the Countess until I had a sizeable rune pile ready for Act 2. I wanted enough runes readily available to make Zephyr, 2x Stealth, Malice, and a few other things. This stop didn’t take very long and served me quite well in speeding up the next act. No other notable finds during this foray, although I did find one unique monster that had a name I myself have used in real life recently:
Ah, Soul Eater… the name I have occasionally given one of my children when being particularly loud and difficult.
One comment Gynli made to someone else in the UT99er thread about starting a bowazon really piqued my interest – focusing on Magic Arrow early on for the raw +damage bonus. Plus, a mana cost of zero and no need for arrows are two very nice bonuses early on. For fun, and because normal difficulty is generally pretty safe/easy, I took this to the extreme, and poured my first 20 points straight into Magic Arrow. By the time I faced Andariel, I had a maxed skill.
Character level 20 = level 20 Magic Arrow. Pretty decent damage for this stage!
(As an aside, I intend to leave Hell Ancients for level 98, so that leaves me with 3 respecs before then. Once a decent bow is found I will respec Eternity to a strafe/MS/valk/passives zon with enough hard points in strength to eventually wield a Grand Matron Bow. Later when more gear is gathered I will begin optimizing skill and stat points accordingly.)
Thanks to the strength of this skill relative to the stage of the game I was at, Andariel fell easily and dropped rubbish as usual.
At least the gem was a topaz! The bow was crap.
Most surprising of all was that my Rogue survived the fight without anyone tanking and with junk gear. She must’ve just lucked out and avoided any of Andariel’s poison attacks. I finished Act 1 at level ~20.8, having conquered all side areas, killed all Superuniques, and touched all waypoints. This is the highest I’ve finished Act 1 in quite a while, and although I generally aim for level 20 at the end of the act I suspect the Countess reruns bumped me up closer to 21.
Well, that’s all for the first update. Hopefully it generates some interest, and I would love feedback on the content/narrative. The Act 2 update will have a lot more discussion about gear choices moving forward; I’ve found that considering and prioritizing certain things (such as IAS) can make a big difference in early game bowazon effectiveness. Plus the magic finding game gets going in earnest.