Hermit's Odd Build Challenge

[Uzziah]

Well... Ole man Cain has been rescued... and there was much rejoicing =]

CF is now lvl 14. His main gear is a +20 life (double chipped ruby) Cap, and a Ctopaz/Cemerald Short Staff that I'd be glad to swap for something better.

Will probably see if I can't harvest the Countess for a few good runes to make life easier.

Just wondering. Can I only use sashes ? Or can I use heavy belts too ? (3 rows would be a great improvement)

Just hope to find a exceptional sash when you get to act 5 i would suggest running the hills for one before heading into the later parts of act 5.

By the way TirRal works really well in staffs it would give you +3 fire skill however you are not using any of those but the other added bonuses from that staff would work well for you.

Level 14 after getting Cain sounds like your making good progress.

 

[Uzziah]

Uzziah

Is it o.k. for my ice bolt sorc to use items with charges ( ie teleport, lower resists, etc)? I'll keep it reasonable. Also, an act 3 cold merc will cast ice blast and glacial spike, and do more damage than my sorc. I can see her doing nothing more than tanking for her merc. Would a cold arrow rogue be better? Is it permissable to craft hit power gloves (knockback). They have a 5% ctc lvl4 frost nova when struck?

Darkwell

I get what your doing now that I have thought about it. 180-200 per ice bolt before mastery is pretty slick for not having any plus skills and being at lvl 44. But I have made my desision on it any congradulate you on such an idea.
:thumbsup:

 

[AlterEgo]

Hermey has defeated Andariel and taken the caravan to Lut Golein.

He had a close call in the catacombs with a CE pack of Disfigured, but other than that no problems this session. Andy was pretty easy as Hermey tanked and his Rogue stayed clear of the poison, pumping mega FE arrows into the maiden of anquish.

Now with 10 points in Teeth, a full compliment of curses and a new desert warrior assistant, Hermey will finally become a dentist. Switched out my melee gear for some lighter caster stuff, and we're ready to head into the sewers.

Hermey the Dentist, lvl21 Act 2

 

[sunbearie]

Mad Dog has also defeat Andariel. I just ran around in circles while my trust rogue shot arrows from her bow socketed with 3 chipped rubies. Rabies at that time was a pathetic level 2.

Act two was only slightly more difficult than Act 1. I did get my first near death experience in the Hall of the Dead though. Ran in, saw 4 mummies together and thought to myself, "hmm bunched up monsters, rabies good". Next thing I knew, I got trapped right in the middle with no where to run. Fortunately, I hAd a couple more potions in my inventory so my rogue and I managed to shoot our way out. Then it came down to the running in circles routine.

Status:
Mad Dog lvl 23 rabies wolf
Rabies lvl 6, 1 in prereqs, no other skills
Heading towards the claw viper temple.

 

[DevontheGnomey]

Shieldbearer the defience merc(well thats what he is) is just about to kill andy at lvl 16. he has had no close calls. i hope in a2 to get some higher defense armor so that my defience has a bigger effect. nothing else to report yet!

 

[Darkwell1]

Winter, my ice bolt sorc, has had a rapid progression thru the game. Not that she can kill anything herslf, but her mercs have proven to be very effective. She is currently lvl 27 and in act 5. Here are her stats.

Act 5 normal

lvl 27

Skills
20 - Ice bolt ( 43-54 dmg )
4 - Chilling armor
1 - Ice blast
1 - Freezing armor
1 - Shiver armor
3 - not used

Equipment
Breastplate socketed with ral/ort
Rare hunters bow with mana leach
Gorefoot unique boots
Manald unique ring
Rare ring ( resists)
Rare amulet ( resists )
Rare belt ( frc, resists )

Not alot to brag about. The best I can say is that she assists her mercs and stays out of harms way. I would guess the merc to sorc kill ratio at 5 to 1 ( at least ). That explains her low level. I'm usually at lvl 27 - 29 when I finish act 2. In act 1, she used a rogue merc then switched to a def. merc in act 2. In act 3 she hired a cold skill merc and this is the merc with which she
must finish normal level.
Basic stratagy is to spam ice bolt and keep everything chilled while the merc takes them out. This was a good technique for acts 1 & 2 because ice bolt was so weak, but I did do both acts at players 4. In act 3, however, the cold merc casts ice blast and spike and would freeze/shatter the monsters. So, my sorc wasn't getting any kills at all and I lowered it to players 1. This allowed her to compete a little better with her merc and let me feel she was at least contributing something to the quest.
What I find interesting is that all 3 mercs that she hired, no matter what lvl they were when hired, caught up to her level before they were retired. Here is how her leveling has gone, act 1 - lvl (1 - 18), act 2 - lvl (18 - 23), act 3 - lvl (23 - 26), act 4 - lvl (26 - 27).
To be honest, I can say that I only know of 2 monsters that she actually killed herself, Andy and Diablo, (her mercs died before these 2 fell) and they took forever to die. The bright spot, in all that I have learned to date, is that I had never used an act 2 merc before and have now gained a new respect for these mercs. In fact, I just started a bowazon specifically to try out a def. merc with a valk. Nothing new to many of you but new to me. I should finish my sorc in a few days but I can say now that an ice bolt sorc can make it thru normal, she just needs a lot of help.

Darkwell

 

[sunbearie]

Kills by your merc still give you exp. There's no penalty involved. It'll be interesting if you could finish off normal before level 30 though :lol:

 

[Uzziah]

Winter, my ice bolt sorc, has had a rapid progression thru the game. Not that she can kill anything herslf, but her mercs have proven to be very effective. She is currently lvl 27 and in act 5. Here are her stats.

Act 5 normal

lvl 27

Skills
20 - Ice bolt ( 43-54 dmg )
4 - Chilling armor
1 - Ice blast
1 - Freezing armor
1 - Shiver armor
3 - not used

Equipment
Breastplate socketed with ral/ort
Rare hunters bow with mana leach
Gorefoot unique boots
Manald unique ring
Rare ring ( resists)
Rare amulet ( resists )
Rare belt ( frc, resists )

Not alot to brag about. The best I can say is that she assists her mercs and stays out of harms way. I would guess the merc to sorc kill ratio at 5 to 1 ( at least ). That explains her low level. I'm usually at lvl 27 - 29 when I finish act 2. In act 1, she used a rogue merc then switched to a def. merc in act 2. In act 3 she hired a cold skill merc and this is the merc with which she
must finish normal level.
Basic stratagy is to spam ice bolt and keep everything chilled while the merc takes them out. This was a good technique for acts 1 & 2 because ice bolt was so weak, but I did do both acts at players 4. In act 3, however, the cold merc casts ice blast and spike and would freeze/shatter the monsters. So, my sorc wasn't getting any kills at all and I lowered it to players 1. This allowed her to compete a little better with her merc and let me feel she was at least contributing something to the quest.
What I find interesting is that all 3 mercs that she hired, no matter what lvl they were when hired, caught up to her level before they were retired. Here is how her leveling has gone, act 1 - lvl (1 - 18), act 2 - lvl (18 - 23), act 3 - lvl (23 - 26), act 4 - lvl (26 - 27).
To be honest, I can say that I only know of 2 monsters that she actually killed herself, Andy and Diablo, (her mercs died before these 2 fell) and they took forever to die. The bright spot, in all that I have learned to date, is that I had never used an act 2 merc before and have now gained a new respect for these mercs. In fact, I just started a bowazon specifically to try out a def. merc with a valk. Nothing new to many of you but new to me. I should finish my sorc in a few days but I can say now that an ice bolt sorc can make it thru normal, she just needs a lot of help.

Darkwell

I am surprized that you dont have any charged items on your items list I thought you would be using some with the frost nova and ice blast to get a higher synergy bonus. Kind of a marrow walk bug for the ice boltress. Glad to hear you are doing well with her. when you hit clvl 30 you should notice a large difference in her ability to kill since she will finally have a mastery.

 

[Darkwell1]

I am surprized that you dont have any charged items on your items list I thought you would be using some with the frost nova and ice blast to get a higher synergy bonus. Kind of a marrow walk bug for the ice boltress. Glad to hear you are doing well with her. when you hit clvl 30 you should notice a large difference in her ability to kill since she will finally have a mastery.

I thought about things to try, but in the end, I couldn't buy/find what I wanted, so I decided to just play and see how far she would get. Not having warmth or static sucks!

Darkwell

BTW; I may not make it to lvl 30 before I finish.

 

[sunbearie]

Noticed there hasn't been much of an update for a while.

Mad Dog has just killed Diablo and he was nice enough to drop a perfect Ward which I have never seen before. Guess that solves all my resists problems for normal. Currently he's lvl 32, with lvl 15 rabies, 18pts unspent, 1 in prereqs. Equipment are all simple magic items(+life/resists). I also managed to craft a blood glove with the Pruby from the hellforge but there were no additional mods besides increased def and goldfind.

Incidentally, I've noticed that at players 1, the monsters are dropping like flies but at players 8, it takes a long time. Does the monster regen increase for each player?

 

[hermit_boy]

I have really been slacking lately in playing my Equalizer Barb.

My wife is due in less than a month, which of course means that things are getting really busy at work.

I appologize for starting a Challenge thread then abandoning it, but unfortunately real life takes precedence.

Good luck to all still playing, and I hope to get back to this soon.

 

[Uzziah]

After dieing once with my passives amazon I gave up on this challenge. I really want to attempt taking my passives barb through nightmare he's still in act 1 but I have gotten a few more levels on him. probably by the end of the next week I will have him in act 2 maybe even act 3. I am using my trapper to MF for skill charms I figure any skill charm I find will make my grail much easier to accomplish.

Darkwell: do you think you can finish the icebolt sorc in under 30 levels? is it going that easy for you?

Hermit_boy: congrad first off about having a newborn, well soon enough. Real life is far more important than this game or any game so take care of it.

AE: hows the dentistry business going?

 

[sunbearie]

Congrates too for the newborn :thumbsup: Any idea if its a boy or girl?

To be honest, I spend 15mins-30min each morning just getting to the next way point. Thats at 5am in the morning. And my motivation was the idea of everyone else getting ahead of me :lol: Real life and work always gets in the way of D2.

 

[sunbearie]

After about 3 weeks of playing, Mad Dog the rabies wolf has finally defeated Normal Baal. He went though normal at players 8 all the way except at ancients and Baal's minions (they all regen too fast). All areas were more or less fully cleared with no area ran twice except for countess (needed a tir runes). Completely untwinked, no esc for bosses etc

Here's his stats:

Slayer Mad Dog lvl 42
Str 75 Dex 65
Vit 85 Erg 20
35 unassigned stat pts

WW 1
Feral rage 1
Rabies 20
23 unassigned skill pts

Equipment

Crushflange (picked up off flayer)
Perfect Ward (off Diablo)
Crafted blood gloves (for CB)
Crafted hit-power boots (for frost nova)
Manald Heal (off imp, act 5)

Other items picked up:
Cow Kings Hat
Isenharts breatplate (off Baal)
Vidala's barb (off Meph)
Best rune was a shael in the WWS.

He'll go on to be a rabid summoner since I don't think rabies is going to cut it any much further in NM. Good luck to the rest of you guys :thumbsup:

 

[AlterEgo]

After dieing once with my passives amazon I gave up on this challenge.

So I guess that's one build that's not able to defeat norm Baal...

...but congrats to you sunbearie for taking your rabid wolf the distance :clap:

AE: hows the dentistry business going?

I took Hermey out a bit yesterday. Just starting A2, he's learning some things about the Teeth skill:

1) Teeth spead out in the shape of a triangle from the casting point. The more teeth, the denser the spray.

2) Monsters aren't hurt badly by lvl12 (slightly synergised) teeth :lol:

3) Bosses will need to be attacked while tanking them, so that they are hit by multiple teeth at once. Therefore high blocking will be needed. This makes most necro heads bad choices.

4) My merc will be my best chance to complete normal. He must be handled with tender loving care.

Anyway, he's killed Radament and found the Cube (yay!). This is going to be a very interesting experience!

Hermey the Dentist, lvl22, A2 Dry Hills WP

 

[Uzziah]

So I guess that's one build that's not able to defeat norm Baal...

Passives amazon is doable if you read earlier in this thread I was/am having severe problems with my computer and a nasty popup trojan.

I took Hermey out a bit yesterday. Just starting A2, he's learning some things about the Teeth skill:

1) Teeth spead out in the shape of a triangle from the casting point. The more teeth, the denser the spray.

2) Monsters aren't hurt badly by lvl12 (slightly synergised) teeth :lol:
... ...Hermey the Dentist, lvl22, A2 Dry Hills WP

AE just a hint: teeth follow the same casting style as charged bolt so inorder to get a tight triangle of teeth you have to aim far beyond the enemy. the further from your char the thinner the teeth's spray pattern.

Been a while since I played with Teeth so I don't remember how slow they are at getting decent damage what I do remember is make sure many of them hit one enemy when your 1 on 1 and to spray them wide when your playing crowd control.

glad to hear that Hermey's doing well.

@sunbearie congrads :winner: I guess you choose to go and run the cow level as well. I didn't know that was part of the challenge but anywho congrads. :clap:

 

[hermit_boy]

Congrates too for the newborn :thumbsup: Any idea if its a boy or girl?

It is a boy, but I guess nothing is certain until he (or she) comes out. :lol:

 

[jiansonz]

Suffering more than three days without D2 didn´t work out for me. However, my current favourite character (Gabrielle, the staff amazon (see avatar)) requires very long playing sessions and that is not possible in the weekdays now that I watch 3.5 hours of football (that´s soccer for you americans) during every evening.

So I took little Vitalita and her rogue companion for a little walk in the woods...
After playing nothing but Gabrielle for several weeks, it sure felt different having a mercenary again.


The Countess is now defeated, at level 13.
3 points in Static Field now, along with a couple of prerequisites and 1 point in Shiver Armor. I have only used Static against Griswold. Otherwise I use mostly Frost Nova (and the occasional Ice Blasts against shamen).

Vitalita now has 150 life. How many lvl 13 sorcies can say that? That life pool will rise all the time. As long as I don´t do anything stupid, I think Vitalita will have an easy time in Normal, even with 0 in the resists department.

There are temptations everywhere, in the form of items. Like this awesome beauty:

Crude Sash
Defense: 1
Doubles the number of potion slots
L33t ItaM

 

[Darkwell1]

I haven't played Winter, my icebolt sorc, for several weeks now. She is still in act 5 normal. I will complete this challange soon. I got distracted by my new bowazon and countess/pit runs.

Darkwell

 

[dmr0731]

im going to enter the challenge too, Im gonna be playing a Bandit Barb.