Guardian Jordan-- Fourth Time's The Charm...

[Jpy]

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." - Michael Jordan
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Arguably one of the best builds for this type of project turned out to be the most challenging attempt so far. Three failed attempts (posted here) prompted some adjustments to the way I was approaching the overall run and provided some valuable "reeducation" on which mobs and situations are most important to be aware of or even avoid. Even common knowledge can go underappreciated when you get comfortable and reminders for this type of challenge come in the form of hours of lost play time.

I followed the same general template (that I won't keep reposting, 3 times already is quite enough) for most of Normal and NM. For Hell preparation, this time I made sure to make a Ground helmet and shop 30+ LR boots to maintain 75 LR even on teleport staff swap and provide enough cushion time to actually react in the case of a bad souls spawn. I found a 4 socket exceptional Polearm and that coupled with Bulwark (and Holy Freeze actually deciding to show up this time) made for a durable desert merc. A nice Heraldic Shield dropped in Act 3 which was socketed at NM Larzuk for Spirit. I also had lucky Ko and Lem drops in NM which were used for Hustle and Treachery respectively. In hindsight, I favor Smoke over Hustle for Hell progress but I didn't have any Lums drops throughout the run and I used the Ios I found for the newer helmet options. Hustle is quite nice anyway. I used Eldritch to 63 then NM Cows and a favorable TZ after Baal to hit 75 before Hell and skipped Hell Countess entirely. Although I have no RIPs to it so far, the Archers are insanely dangerous in Hell. I over-levelled a bit from NM as I went back to TZs to farm an extra 2 levels for Crown strength requirement as I had no other 3 socket helmets for Ground. Right on queue, a 3 socket Mask dropped from a mob RIGHT BEFORE I hit the level I needed for Crown...

Hell was rather uneventful all in all. Still a few heart pounding moments and aborts when encountering auras or curse but all in all not too bad. I used extreme caution for Flayer Dungeon, Sewer, Durance, and WSK as those are where dolls make appearances. I nearly fucked myself at Ancients when I realized I had 0 TPs in my tome but I got lucky with a collection of tame modifiers and a mob early in WSK dropped a TP to regroup in town for the push to WP. I basically hid in a corner and let the merc handle wave 2, the rest were easy to handle with Life Tap for waves 3-5. I ended the run with ~5.3k damage, ~1650 life, and capped light/fire resistance.

Jordan will be used for torch farming at some point but I'm not ready for that project yet lmfao. I have very limited experience with Uber Tristram from online play so it'll be interesting as hell on HC.

Final Setup:

Spoiler

Level 79 (20 BH, 20 Concentration, 20 Vigor, 20 Blessed Aim, 1 Holy Shield, 1 Fanaticism, 1 Redemption)
Lore Circlet + Ground Mask
Magic Amulet (16 all resistance)
Spirit CS (34/105/7) and Spirit HS (29/102/4 + 24 all resistance)
Swap alternating Teleport staff and Life Tap wand
Hustle Breast Plate
Magic Chain Gloves (27 FR + half freeze duration)
Crafted Caster Sharkskin Belt (9 FCR/23 life/13 mana/26 FR)
Magic Heavy Boots (20 FRW/33 CR)
Rare Ring (29 LR)
Magic Ring (10 FCR)

Fazel 79 Holy Freeze Desert Merc
Bulwark Crown
Insight Partizan
Treachery Breast Plate

Noteworthy Drops:

Spoiler

Crafted Caster Belt
Magefist
Ko
Lem
Hell Forge (Io)