Guardian Luca-- Three's Company

[Jpy]

So the next day my father went to see him, only this time with Luca Brasi.
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Luca began his trek through Normal as a Double Swing build with 2 measly Scepters. I ran Countess for a plethora of runes and experience. CtC Frost Nova is criminally underrated for close quarters combat, so I made sure to shop 2 pieces with it so the merc could proc it too. I also saved any diamonds I found en route to Act 2 to craft savage polearms. In Act 2 I was able to shop 2x 3 socket Flails and a 2 socket Bone Shield without too much effort. Malice and 3x Tal Flail with Stealth and a Defiance desert merc made short work of Act 2 and 3. Poison damage throwing potions added a layer of much needed AoE, and I picked up a Teleport staff for mobility and Life Tap wand from Ormus to further bolster the spear poker's durability. I used the 3 shrine WP I had in Black Marsh to compliment Ruined Temple to 24 and eventually Eldritch to 30 to make life a bit easier with over levelling and upgrade to a Perfect Ruby for blood crafted gloves. I shopped an FCR wand and a +Barbarian skills throwing knife from Malah and ran Pindle to 35 after rescuing Anya. I was satisfied with the build to finish Normal and killed Ancients/Baal then reran cows for a white crystal sword before respec'ing to a WC build. I used the first socket quest on the crystal sword.

In NM, I spent quite a while at Countess after shopping a few pieces to round out resistances. I ran her from 38-50, using /players8 when I had experience shrines spawn for Tower levels 1-4. I made a Lore and Spirit in the crystal sword from cows. I had a 4 socket normal bow and normal polearm drop at some point during the runs so I made an Insight for the desert merc and another in the bow and stashed it for future use. A 4 socket broad sword dropped during the runs and thanks to a few charms and random pieces with +strength I was able to equip it without stat'ing any more strength than I had already planned to. At this point the build was quite effective with stun from WC, quite a bit of damage for P1 content, merc complimenting with pokes, and very durable with capped resistance and buffs. I also had a Black setup with 50% CB and 1 pt WW for boss kills. I progressed to Act 5 and reran Eldritch to 60, Pindle to 65, then Baal waves to 70.

Hell actually offered a challenge, even on P1. There's just more physical resistance across the board for mobs so kill speed slowed down quite a bit and since it's HC I had invested more heavily in BO than I probably would've for SC, resulting in a bit lower WC damage output. This build with a desert merc also suffers from only having physical damage so the Insight bow I stashed turned out to be useful as I had to hire a rogue merc to finish Den of Evil. I used a fire rogue to kill Corpsefire as he's Cold and Physical immune, but switched to a cold merc for the rest of Hell progression as the freeze is another layer of safety. Again, I ran Countess quite a bit to bolster the rune stash and provide a good source of experience to propel through the rest of the difficulty. This yielded a Smoke and Hearth for the rogue to keep her mobile and save me gold. Backed by Shout and BO she actually died much less throughout all of Hell than I thought she would, which turned out to be invaluable as I finished the run with a 105 FCR mana guzzling build. Countess runs also dropped a 4 socket Great Bow while no elite polearms dropped white or 4 socket from all of Hell, further cementing the rogue's place in the run. By the end of the Countess runs I had some ~800 WC damage, ~3800 life, a decently effective merc and capped light/fire resistance. I finished Act 1-2 fairly quickly and Acts 3-5 in under 2 hours. Swapping between Harmony and Teleport staff with help from Leap Attack made traversing the maps incredibly quick so most of the time was spent killing the actual act bosses. Some dicey moments in the Tower Cellars and WSK. Baal took FOR FUCKING EVER but was otherwise uneventful.

I'll probably build this into another MF Berserk variant, albeit a bit more bulky than my previous SC version. Maybe I'll actually make a real attempt at grail but it's lost some of its luster with the big TZ targets around...

Final Setup:

Spoiler

Level 77 (20 WC, 20 BO, 20 Battle Cry, 13 Howl, 1 Battle Command, 1 Mace Mastery, 1 Increased Speed, 1 Natural Resistance, 1 WW)
Lore War Hat
Magic Amulet (20 all resistances)
Spirit CS (34/112/5) and Spirit BS (32/11/7)
Swap alternating Teleport staff, Harmony Hunter's Bow, Life Tap wand, and Black Flail + Rhyme Bone Shield
Stealth Breast Plate
Crafted Blood Heavy Gloves (1 LL/10 CB/11 Life/8 LR/13 FR)
Magic Demonhide Sash (28 LR)
Rare Chain Boots (CTC Frost Nova, 20 FRW, 20 FR)
Rare Ring (10 FCR, 25 Life, 8 LR, 27 FR)
Rare Ring (10 FCR, 39 Mana)

Elly Level 76 Freezing Arrow Rogue Merc
Hearth Death Mask
Insight Great Bow
Smoke Breast Plate

Noteworthy Drops:

Spoiler

6 Socket PB
Def Aura GC
Ko
Hell Forge (Lem)
Pul
Vex
Ormus Rare Ring
Hotspur

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[DaveW]

Nice job here jpy. But don't forget a cryer is a good option for Pit running too. But an A2 Insight (HF) merc is pretty much a given here. Can use a Teleport staff, Howl to separate minions from bosses and safety ofc, and WC/Merc to take boss down. Hork rinse and repeat. All the best!