- Jun 22, 2003
- 7,940
- 0
- 0
Guardian Pete, Randomly Challenged Necromancer
(Due to lazyiness, I haven´t gotten around to writing this until now)
I managed to go all the way in "my own" tournament, Randomly Challenged II.
I rolled a Necromancer with a Barbarian (Act V) mercenary, which I think is one of the better combos possible, but it also meant that the path until I could hire my merc would be slow going.
I played v1.11, and used the following players settings:
/p8: Nearly all of Normal and NM, plus when opening sparkly chests and potential super chests on Hell
/p5: Nightmare cow level
/p3: Nearly all of Hell, plus Normal/NM Duriel, Diablo and Baal
/p2: Normal and NM Countess part of her floor (I switched after looting the side rooms with lots of gold and chests)
/p1: All Ancients battles, when entering Hell Act III temples and the final part of Hell (after Ancients)
With four mercless acts ahead of me, I understood that Pete himself would have to do a lot of fighting early on. The early stat points rolled well for Pete, giving him enough Strength (25) to use a Scepter 1-2 levels faster than you´d expect on average. He also got a point in Clay Golem at level 7. The Golem help was much appreciated, since late Act I is actually quite dangerous when you have no archer companion and much less life than usual. I rolled a point in Iron Maiden late in the act, making the Andariel fight easy. (Golem + IM is a tried and true act boss fighting method ever since Classic).
Pete managed to put together a 'Steel' Flail in the Far Oasis, and this was to remain his main weapon during the rest of his 'fighter phase'. Poison Explosion was good against the skeleton hordes in the tombs, both for cheap corpse destruction and for decent AoE-damage.
Forgotten Temple was a real test for Pete. See this post for details on that scary mess.
Act IV was very VERY slow going. I guess most of the damage Pete did to the monsters was the Open Wounds from his weapon.
Diablo was slain using Iron Maiden and tons of Clay Golems. The first thing Diablo did in the fight was to jail Pete with a Bone Prison. But Pete wasn´t born yesterday, so he switched to his Teleporting staff, and popped out of the prison. :badteeth:
Pete then just ran through Bloody Foothills and Frigid Highlands, stopping only to establish a foothold on the defense lines with Barbarian prisoners. This quest was the most important one in the game for him. How many characters can say that?
His prize was immense, a Barbarian companion that was ten times a better fighter than Pete. Gameplay became relaxed and very easy. Actually, pretty much the rest of the game was quite easy, due to some good item luck and getting some key skills in time. The most important event for the skills was getting a point in Revive in Act I NM. Revives made Drus much easier to keep alive and effective.
The closest Pete came to dying was in Act V Nightmare. He was in 'crazy MF mode' (sporting about +530% MF for Drus' kills) so he had neglected +life gear - he had only just above 500 life. In one of the ice caves, a group of Bone Spear-tossing snakes damaged Pete much more than I first realized. Since the spells didn´t cause Pete to scream in agony, I didn´t understand it was dangerous until I suddenly saw a near-empty life bulb! I got more careful after that, and once I started in Hell difficulty, I loaded up on +life gear.
With the stuff that was to become his endgame gear, Drus is the strongest merc I´ve ever had, and although Pete´s skill points distribution is abysmal, the key skills (Clay Golem, Golem Mastery, Amp, Dim Vision, Decrepify, Life Tap, CE and Revive) were plenty good enough to see him through. I did not park a single monster in the whole game, and pulled off my second v1.10+ Necromancer Guardian.
(See the tourney thread for more details on the journey.)
Sword progression for Drus:
- Massive Great Sword (bought from Larzuk when Drus was hired)
- Savage (79%) Great Sword of Readiness (bought from Larzuk later in Act V)
- Rare Gothic Sword with +158% ED (gambled + upgraded around mid-Act II NM)
- Ferocious (+113% ED) Executioner Sword (gambled in Act IV NM)
- Rare Gothic Sword with +195% ED (rare Bastard Sword found on NM Arreat Plateau)
- Cruel Executioner Sword (bought from NM Larzuk at clvl 71)
- Rare Highland Blade, dropped in mid-Act I Hell
- Ethereal 'Crescent Moon' Legend Sword (socketed sword found in Sewers level 3, Act II Hell)
Stats:
Level 87
STR 126+1
DEX 142+16
VIT 116
ENE 141+20
Life 1027
Mana 532
59% Blocking
Resist Fire 75
Resist Cold 52
Resist Lightning 75
Resist Poison 16
Skills:
Raise Skeleton 3+4
Skeleton Mastery 6+4
Raise Skeletal Mage 4+4
Revive 2+4
Clay Golem 5+4
Golem Mastery 7+4
Blood Golem 2+4
Iron Golem 2+4
Fire Golem 1+4
Summon Resist 1+4
Bone Armor 3+5
Bone Wall 1+5
Teeth 6+5
Corpse Explosion 4+5
Bone Spear 1+5
Bone Spirit 3+5
Poison Dagger 4+5
Poison Explosion 4+5
Poison Nova 3+5
Amplify Damage 7+6
Weaken 3+6
Terror 2+6
Decrepify 5+6
Dim Vision 3+6
Confuse 3+6
Attract 1+6
Iron Maiden 6+6
Life Tap 2+6
Lower Resist 4+6
Teleport (25 charges)
Primary Gear:
* Circlet of Teleportation, reward-socketed with a perfect ruby
* Rainbow (11) Amulet of the Whale (89)
* Rare Bone Wand with +2 Necro skills, Resist Fire 11, Resist Lightning 8
* Artisan´s Gothic Plate of the Squid with 3x perfect ruby (+189 life)
* Pete´s Homunculus unique Heirophant Trophy, reward-socketed with a perfect diamond
* Coral (28) Leather Gloves of Fortune (24)
* Raven Frost unique Ring
* Garnet (29) Heavy Belt of the Whale (93)
* Scintillating (13) Ring of Chance (12)
* Rare Demonhide Boots with 20% Faster Run, 14% ctc lvl 5 Nova when struck, Resist Fire 32, Resist Cold 33
* Fungal Grand Charm of Flame
* Grand Charm of Sustenance (35)
* Fine (4/34) Grand Charm of Vita (40)
* Tangerine (12) Grand Charm of Balance
* Large Charm of Sustenance (23)
* Snake´s (23) Large Charm of Sustenance (25)
* Azure (3) Small Charm of Life (9)
* Tangerine (5) Small Charm of Strength (1)
* Ocher (6) Small Charm
* Shimmering (3) Small Charm of Greed
* Small Charm of Sustenance (13)
* Small Charm of Vita (17)
* Small Charm of Vita (20)
Weapon switch:
* Riphook unique Razor Bow
Drus of Harrogath, level 87:
* Crafted Helm with 29 Defense, 14% ctc lvl 5 Charged Bolt when struck, 10% Deadly Strike, 3% Life Steal, +15 Life, Resist Fire 8
* Ethereal 'Crescent Moon' Legend Sword (+195% ED)
* Duriel´s Shell unique Cuirass, reward-socketed with a Jewel of Fervor
(Due to lazyiness, I haven´t gotten around to writing this until now)
I managed to go all the way in "my own" tournament, Randomly Challenged II.
I rolled a Necromancer with a Barbarian (Act V) mercenary, which I think is one of the better combos possible, but it also meant that the path until I could hire my merc would be slow going.
I played v1.11, and used the following players settings:
/p8: Nearly all of Normal and NM, plus when opening sparkly chests and potential super chests on Hell
/p5: Nightmare cow level
/p3: Nearly all of Hell, plus Normal/NM Duriel, Diablo and Baal
/p2: Normal and NM Countess part of her floor (I switched after looting the side rooms with lots of gold and chests)
/p1: All Ancients battles, when entering Hell Act III temples and the final part of Hell (after Ancients)
With four mercless acts ahead of me, I understood that Pete himself would have to do a lot of fighting early on. The early stat points rolled well for Pete, giving him enough Strength (25) to use a Scepter 1-2 levels faster than you´d expect on average. He also got a point in Clay Golem at level 7. The Golem help was much appreciated, since late Act I is actually quite dangerous when you have no archer companion and much less life than usual. I rolled a point in Iron Maiden late in the act, making the Andariel fight easy. (Golem + IM is a tried and true act boss fighting method ever since Classic).
Pete managed to put together a 'Steel' Flail in the Far Oasis, and this was to remain his main weapon during the rest of his 'fighter phase'. Poison Explosion was good against the skeleton hordes in the tombs, both for cheap corpse destruction and for decent AoE-damage.
Forgotten Temple was a real test for Pete. See this post for details on that scary mess.
Act IV was very VERY slow going. I guess most of the damage Pete did to the monsters was the Open Wounds from his weapon.
Diablo was slain using Iron Maiden and tons of Clay Golems. The first thing Diablo did in the fight was to jail Pete with a Bone Prison. But Pete wasn´t born yesterday, so he switched to his Teleporting staff, and popped out of the prison. :badteeth:
Pete then just ran through Bloody Foothills and Frigid Highlands, stopping only to establish a foothold on the defense lines with Barbarian prisoners. This quest was the most important one in the game for him. How many characters can say that?
His prize was immense, a Barbarian companion that was ten times a better fighter than Pete. Gameplay became relaxed and very easy. Actually, pretty much the rest of the game was quite easy, due to some good item luck and getting some key skills in time. The most important event for the skills was getting a point in Revive in Act I NM. Revives made Drus much easier to keep alive and effective.
The closest Pete came to dying was in Act V Nightmare. He was in 'crazy MF mode' (sporting about +530% MF for Drus' kills) so he had neglected +life gear - he had only just above 500 life. In one of the ice caves, a group of Bone Spear-tossing snakes damaged Pete much more than I first realized. Since the spells didn´t cause Pete to scream in agony, I didn´t understand it was dangerous until I suddenly saw a near-empty life bulb! I got more careful after that, and once I started in Hell difficulty, I loaded up on +life gear.
With the stuff that was to become his endgame gear, Drus is the strongest merc I´ve ever had, and although Pete´s skill points distribution is abysmal, the key skills (Clay Golem, Golem Mastery, Amp, Dim Vision, Decrepify, Life Tap, CE and Revive) were plenty good enough to see him through. I did not park a single monster in the whole game, and pulled off my second v1.10+ Necromancer Guardian.
(See the tourney thread for more details on the journey.)
Sword progression for Drus:
- Massive Great Sword (bought from Larzuk when Drus was hired)
- Savage (79%) Great Sword of Readiness (bought from Larzuk later in Act V)
- Rare Gothic Sword with +158% ED (gambled + upgraded around mid-Act II NM)
- Ferocious (+113% ED) Executioner Sword (gambled in Act IV NM)
- Rare Gothic Sword with +195% ED (rare Bastard Sword found on NM Arreat Plateau)
- Cruel Executioner Sword (bought from NM Larzuk at clvl 71)
- Rare Highland Blade, dropped in mid-Act I Hell
- Ethereal 'Crescent Moon' Legend Sword (socketed sword found in Sewers level 3, Act II Hell)
Stats:
Level 87
STR 126+1
DEX 142+16
VIT 116
ENE 141+20
Life 1027
Mana 532
59% Blocking
Resist Fire 75
Resist Cold 52
Resist Lightning 75
Resist Poison 16
Skills:
Raise Skeleton 3+4
Skeleton Mastery 6+4
Raise Skeletal Mage 4+4
Revive 2+4
Clay Golem 5+4
Golem Mastery 7+4
Blood Golem 2+4
Iron Golem 2+4
Fire Golem 1+4
Summon Resist 1+4
Bone Armor 3+5
Bone Wall 1+5
Teeth 6+5
Corpse Explosion 4+5
Bone Spear 1+5
Bone Spirit 3+5
Poison Dagger 4+5
Poison Explosion 4+5
Poison Nova 3+5
Amplify Damage 7+6
Weaken 3+6
Terror 2+6
Decrepify 5+6
Dim Vision 3+6
Confuse 3+6
Attract 1+6
Iron Maiden 6+6
Life Tap 2+6
Lower Resist 4+6
Teleport (25 charges)
Primary Gear:
* Circlet of Teleportation, reward-socketed with a perfect ruby
* Rainbow (11) Amulet of the Whale (89)
* Rare Bone Wand with +2 Necro skills, Resist Fire 11, Resist Lightning 8
* Artisan´s Gothic Plate of the Squid with 3x perfect ruby (+189 life)
* Pete´s Homunculus unique Heirophant Trophy, reward-socketed with a perfect diamond
* Coral (28) Leather Gloves of Fortune (24)
* Raven Frost unique Ring
* Garnet (29) Heavy Belt of the Whale (93)
* Scintillating (13) Ring of Chance (12)
* Rare Demonhide Boots with 20% Faster Run, 14% ctc lvl 5 Nova when struck, Resist Fire 32, Resist Cold 33
* Fungal Grand Charm of Flame
* Grand Charm of Sustenance (35)
* Fine (4/34) Grand Charm of Vita (40)
* Tangerine (12) Grand Charm of Balance
* Large Charm of Sustenance (23)
* Snake´s (23) Large Charm of Sustenance (25)
* Azure (3) Small Charm of Life (9)
* Tangerine (5) Small Charm of Strength (1)
* Ocher (6) Small Charm
* Shimmering (3) Small Charm of Greed
* Small Charm of Sustenance (13)
* Small Charm of Vita (17)
* Small Charm of Vita (20)
Weapon switch:
* Riphook unique Razor Bow
Drus of Harrogath, level 87:
* Crafted Helm with 29 Defense, 14% ctc lvl 5 Charged Bolt when struck, 10% Deadly Strike, 3% Life Steal, +15 Life, Resist Fire 8
* Ethereal 'Crescent Moon' Legend Sword (+195% ED)
* Duriel´s Shell unique Cuirass, reward-socketed with a Jewel of Fervor
Last edited:
Google