Act III - one close call, I almost died porting into a bosspack of flayers - maeko was fine. council was easy, they were split up well so I took them down a few at a time, porting away when scared. Some new gear for her, 199% skystrike, eth undead crown for ll%, eth hawkmail with resist jewel. Maeko took down mephisto on /p8. Really having a lot of fun with this. finished act III at level 32.
Act IV - still on /p8, nova is starting to slow down even though it's maxed. 3 hard points in blizzard and 1 hard point in cold mastery. Now casting blizzard and novas between. Things dying quick. Slowly clearing ahead through most of river of flame and cs. No close calls here all the way up to big D. Diablo fight is really intense - fire hose even for an instant takes Maeko down to half health. Diablo's firestorm does the same. Circle of flame doesn't hurt too bad luckily. a few close calls here, had to port in carefully, static close range quickly, port back out, merc almost dies twice, then get D on the edge of the screen a couple more times with blizzard, porting away after, and we win! Definitely got my heart racing, still having lots of fun. Finished a4 at level 35
No cool pics from this act except a spectacular HF drop
Act V - Easy through most of it - spamming blizzard and nova. Equipped merc with eth Stealskull, eth upped twitchthroe, and a Riphook Razor Bow. She's shooting so fast doing so much damage it's insane. She's still killing things quick on /p8, better than before she's poppin off dudes. She's also like invincible with all that phys damage and life leech. This bow is so insane I'm not sure why I've never used it before - open wounds, slows targets, life leech, ias, boatloads of ED I mean just look at it. She's bleeding the whole screen, cleaning up everything for me. I was convinced she'd be worthless through this whole playthrough but not the case, she's actually helping. A5 was a snooze really. It's so long, there are so many zones and huge zones and so many monsters. I almost died twice to a curse I had never seen before, the one that swaps your mana for your health, so when you cast spells you cast from your healthbar. ouch.
I did ancients on /p1 out of fear. It's the first time I've bumped it down. It was probably unnecessary but I don't want to take any risks by the time I got here since it took SO MUCH TIME. Back up to /p8 for the remainder of act 5 - waves were a little scary but my merc sat up behind me on the throne and I stood in front of her so I just had to worry about myself. Things died quick though at level 48. Baal was also no issue, just static and merc finished him off for fun.
I don't think I've ever done a full clear of the entire game. The big difference I've noticed is that some monsters are legit scary and it happens regularly. I never realized how much I skipped when I played, if something posed a threat I'd just port away or quit out and start a new run or whatever. Even though I'm decked out, some monsters still pose a threat, and this merc is really helping with those because I can run around, avoid damage, cast when I can and she's just standing back hailing arrows on them it's nutty. IAS on gear really helps her out too, she shoots SO FAST. Lovin the act 1 merc choice for this run, it's tons of fun.
On to NM. I think I will complete this run. I think my biggest fear for losing this run is me dying, not my merc. The A1 merc just gets outta the way so fast, like if I teleport and stay put she'll still be able to get off me and move away from stuff. The only real trouble times are when I port directly into a pack of monsters, or lightning enchanted stuff.