- Jan 22, 2007
- 9,183
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Golemancer Attempt No.2
Prologue
Razan rose sleepily from his bed in Dallas the Innkeeper's hostelry when he thought he heard someone in the shower. Rubbing his eyes, he couldn't believe what he was seeing - Gumby Balboa, alive and well? What the Hell was happening? The last time he'd laid eyes on the Necro, he had fallen in The Pit, assailed on all sides by Dark Stalkers. That, and the subsequent days spent drowning his sorrows at Gheed's ... well, it must all have been a dream. Bewilderment was swiftly followed by anger and disappointment, when he was informed by Balboa that he was fired. To hell with the damned crazy golem nutjob Necro anyway.
Around and Under The Monastery
Balboa had informed an angry, but unaccountably incoherent, Razan that his services were no longer required. His reasons, not relayed to a shell-shocked and babbling Razan, were thus - Holy Freeze was not providing the needed crowd control, and with no other special abilities at his disposal, the desert merc was proving too frail for the rigours of this adventure. No, Jemali was what we needed, a Defiance mercenary. He fitted in well, and his special ability was one we all shared in. A new Rusty was created from the last of the Malice runes/weapons we had available at this point.
We took the waypoint from the Outer Cloister and headed back to The Pit. Balboa seemed distracted and even a little disorientated - he kept talking about "Deja Vu" or somesuch creature - I've never met one or even heard of it. The First Level of the Pit was cleared with ease, but resistance was stiffer on the Second Level. The battle ebbed and flowed, but victory was ultimately ours, even if, for some reason, it felt hollow.
In preparation for the Monastery, Balboa made some further changes. We just weren't damaging things quickly enough. An Ith rune dropped in the Pit meant we had one more Malice runeword left, which was ready to be placed in a 3os Voulge (we had nothing better) if needed. Jemali kept the Strength War Spear he inherited from Razan, and a new Rusty was created from a Matriarchal Pike. At first, this pairing worked very well. In the Barracks, The Smith was readily slain. However, things became very hard indeed shortly after that. Bone Mage and Archer Bosses and Champions made our lives an absolute Hell. It was a chore teasing out these characters from the cells as a frontal assault simply left us in a crossfire we couldn't hope to survive. Isolating and slaying the bosses was particularly satisfying. However, Wraiths made the job even trickier.
Neither Wraiths nor Mages were the worst of it - a boss pack of Tainted were a real trial for us. Being Amp Damage cursed meant having to rescue the Jemali time and time again, or resurrecting him if Balboa was too slow.
In the Cathedral, we met our first unkillable monster. Amp Damage couldn't break its immunity and we had no suitable elemental damage equipment - unless we wanted to dismantle our Honor Rusty. No way! We had to park the creature, but met him many times on our way to and from the Catacombs ...
Descending the stairs down to The Catacombs, we endured a stairtrap of Tainted and Dark Ones, and gradually established a foothold. Balboa needed to run into the Catacombs, dodging all kinds of creatures, create a Portal, and escape through it. We then retraced our steps from the Inner Cloister Waypoint, past the Immune Wraith Boss and descend the stairs from the Cathedral. Rinse and repeat, until we had a safe area next to the stairs. It was the only way we could manage the task.
Jemali was given the Malice Voulge as we were sorely missing the Open Wounds capability, despite the big damage from the Honor Rusty. The switch proved quite effective. In time, and after one final boss, we secured the Catacombs Level Two Waypoint.
Stats
109 Stats and 5 Skill Points unspent - I'm beginning to wonder whether I'll ever find armour that will be worth spending points on Strength. Perhaps I won't bother and just stick with Vitality, but surely I'm due to find a Skin of the Vipermagi one of these days?
I've given in, and reduced the /players setting to 5. I simply couldn't handle the difficulty of P8 - I just cannot keep the merc alive. Pit Level One was done on P1, as I'd previously cleared it before dying.
Merc equipment-wise, a couple of Rare Ogre Axes dropped today, with some useful damage on them, but the Strength req is too high for my merc at this point. A 2os CV dropped too, this will make a good Strength pole for Jemali if he ever gets enough strength to use it.
Golemancer Attempt No.1 thread here.
Champion GumbyBalboa - Level 82, Act 1, Catacombs Level 3
Prologue
Razan rose sleepily from his bed in Dallas the Innkeeper's hostelry when he thought he heard someone in the shower. Rubbing his eyes, he couldn't believe what he was seeing - Gumby Balboa, alive and well? What the Hell was happening? The last time he'd laid eyes on the Necro, he had fallen in The Pit, assailed on all sides by Dark Stalkers. That, and the subsequent days spent drowning his sorrows at Gheed's ... well, it must all have been a dream. Bewilderment was swiftly followed by anger and disappointment, when he was informed by Balboa that he was fired. To hell with the damned crazy golem nutjob Necro anyway.
Around and Under The Monastery
Balboa had informed an angry, but unaccountably incoherent, Razan that his services were no longer required. His reasons, not relayed to a shell-shocked and babbling Razan, were thus - Holy Freeze was not providing the needed crowd control, and with no other special abilities at his disposal, the desert merc was proving too frail for the rigours of this adventure. No, Jemali was what we needed, a Defiance mercenary. He fitted in well, and his special ability was one we all shared in. A new Rusty was created from the last of the Malice runes/weapons we had available at this point.
We took the waypoint from the Outer Cloister and headed back to The Pit. Balboa seemed distracted and even a little disorientated - he kept talking about "Deja Vu" or somesuch creature - I've never met one or even heard of it. The First Level of the Pit was cleared with ease, but resistance was stiffer on the Second Level. The battle ebbed and flowed, but victory was ultimately ours, even if, for some reason, it felt hollow.
In preparation for the Monastery, Balboa made some further changes. We just weren't damaging things quickly enough. An Ith rune dropped in the Pit meant we had one more Malice runeword left, which was ready to be placed in a 3os Voulge (we had nothing better) if needed. Jemali kept the Strength War Spear he inherited from Razan, and a new Rusty was created from a Matriarchal Pike. At first, this pairing worked very well. In the Barracks, The Smith was readily slain. However, things became very hard indeed shortly after that. Bone Mage and Archer Bosses and Champions made our lives an absolute Hell. It was a chore teasing out these characters from the cells as a frontal assault simply left us in a crossfire we couldn't hope to survive. Isolating and slaying the bosses was particularly satisfying. However, Wraiths made the job even trickier.
Neither Wraiths nor Mages were the worst of it - a boss pack of Tainted were a real trial for us. Being Amp Damage cursed meant having to rescue the Jemali time and time again, or resurrecting him if Balboa was too slow.
In the Cathedral, we met our first unkillable monster. Amp Damage couldn't break its immunity and we had no suitable elemental damage equipment - unless we wanted to dismantle our Honor Rusty. No way! We had to park the creature, but met him many times on our way to and from the Catacombs ...
Descending the stairs down to The Catacombs, we endured a stairtrap of Tainted and Dark Ones, and gradually established a foothold. Balboa needed to run into the Catacombs, dodging all kinds of creatures, create a Portal, and escape through it. We then retraced our steps from the Inner Cloister Waypoint, past the Immune Wraith Boss and descend the stairs from the Cathedral. Rinse and repeat, until we had a safe area next to the stairs. It was the only way we could manage the task.
Jemali was given the Malice Voulge as we were sorely missing the Open Wounds capability, despite the big damage from the Honor Rusty. The switch proved quite effective. In time, and after one final boss, we secured the Catacombs Level Two Waypoint.
Stats
109 Stats and 5 Skill Points unspent - I'm beginning to wonder whether I'll ever find armour that will be worth spending points on Strength. Perhaps I won't bother and just stick with Vitality, but surely I'm due to find a Skin of the Vipermagi one of these days?
I've given in, and reduced the /players setting to 5. I simply couldn't handle the difficulty of P8 - I just cannot keep the merc alive. Pit Level One was done on P1, as I'd previously cleared it before dying.
Merc equipment-wise, a couple of Rare Ogre Axes dropped today, with some useful damage on them, but the Strength req is too high for my merc at this point. A 2os CV dropped too, this will make a good Strength pole for Jemali if he ever gets enough strength to use it.
Golemancer Attempt No.1 thread here.
Champion GumbyBalboa - Level 82, Act 1, Catacombs Level 3
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