Mace's Humble Beginning

[okey]

Montage!~

(not shown: 75% chance to hit Diablo with Frenzy)

After continuing where I last left off, I concluded this particular session with Diablo. As for notable events.. a 3os Battle Hammer dropt which I made into a Malice ( I need all the damage boost I can get my hands on). Aside from that I happened upon another pair of demonstride (lower roll than the previous), trangs gloves, dark clan crusher. I got a Sol as my hellforge, and Diablo dropt a subpar Buriza and Cold Kill Hatchet. Once arriving into A5, I used socket recipe an eth partizan hoping for a 4os which did happen which I then made another Insight into bumping the damage on Bain's merc by an addition 300.

I have to make a mention on Holy Thunder, despite its low damage, what with it being made in a War Scepter, it's a pretty sweet little beat stick due to the fact that it grants my barb an obscene amount of light resis. And to my surprise face tanking Diablo's lightning hose (with Holy Thunder that is), was cinch.

Skill build direction: I am leaving my Bo at 8 and dumping all my skills into Frenzy synergies, mainly because my damage is craptastic.. Can't wait for some maces with new flavors to pop up.

 

[okey]

Brown Chicken Brown Baal~

Bain took his sweet time trekking through A5, completed it, and finished Cows. Sadly, he(I) was at the mercy of our lackluster weapon selection.. had to make due with what's given.

Things to note: I stacked up on PDR when Nithlak's Tomb Viper showed up as they (well their lingering poison) was kicking my ass, nearly croaked thinking I would be fine just taunting them-- Tomb Viper: Haha, nope. Also dealing with Baal's Raptors was a pain (knockback hell)! Drops were meh. I was hoping to get a Lem so I can make a much needed Law Bringer but.. alas RNG says otherwise because in this run I netted 2 Trang's gloves!

But I did it.. took a while but Bain @ lv75 has summited Nightmare!

 

[okey]

The ridiculousness that is the Ian the Hammerdin

So after messing w/ Bain I passed one of his Trangs onto Ian. It's been a long time since I last played Ian, but I got to say one thing to Ian: Damn what did you eat to get so big? I mean after struggling to make ends meet with Bain, playing Ian was so, soooo refreshing. What's so good about Ian--Ian is fast, Ian is strong, and Ian is relatively durable. And after playing with the nightmare that is Bain, playing Ian was a much needed break.

But I digress. What happened when playing Ian: Nothing much. Ian pretty much charged from one area to the other, systematically bulldozing everything in his path. There were hickups here and there in form of NDE (due on my part) because I forgot to switch to Walk and instead Ran in battle like an idiot (this drops your block % to 1/3 the max and defense to 0).

Gear progression in chronological order: I managed to acquire two Thuls which I used in conjunction with other assortment of lesser runes to cube up into an Amn, which I then used to complete Ian's Spirit shield. Shame it was 1 fcr away from max, but it's a good roll nontheless. Rampaged my way through Act 1 and into Act 2, wondering why I was rarely getting any good drops I switched up my jewelry and headgear optimizing my MF as high as possible (to a high of 129).. and lo and behold, it did work. The most notable drop was a near perfect Nagel which I acquired in one of Tal Rasha's Tomb, which help to boost Ian's MF to a workable 148.

For more pic click here.

And thus, Ian lv60 arrives @ NM Kurast Docks.

 

[okey]

So what happened while Ian crusaded his way towards Baal?-- well a lot of things happened: Feel free to check out the image dump!

alright, I kid.. the majority of the journey consisted of Ian loading up on his MF and pillaging every single lifeform, leaving no stone and body unturned. Doing so landed him many good loots in the process, noteable mention goes to Suicide Branch (which I stupidly sold away while mass selling my staves in stash for gambling monies ), a 40% MF amulet, Blackhorn's Face, a Light GC, 13 all res GC, 18hp sc, perfect Tal belt, a non-eth low ed Hone Sundan, Cow Boots, a pretty neat Necro Circlet, a handful of Sols, a Fal from HF, and other things. But the best of his acquired items would go to his own worn circlet gambled off of Gheed, crafted safety ring, belt, rerolled Spirit Sword, and last but not least his Prismatic Amulet of Everlasting Life (shame it isn't perfect).

Thus after respec'ing to maximize his potential Ian is clocking in at 4.7k hdmg @ 125fcr, 66% block rate with the following..

With that said, Ian passes on the batton~

 

[okey]

It's strange, I haven't seen a Dragon yet, who're all these peerless experts outfitting the vendors

So as you may have guessed from the picture above, I'm back on Nissa the Trapsin. The progress wasn't all too horrible. I may have set Act 1 harder than it should have due to lack of heavy melee merc but with the miracles that is Mind and Fire Blast and a lot of smart manipulation of the obstacles on the terrain, the challenge was surrmounted. So once coming into Act 2 I immediately fired my cold merc and immediately went and recruited Ahsab the Might merc and completed the act up toward Jeryhn's Palace. One thing I have to say, there's far too many light enchanted on this particular run, is this coincidence because I am playing as a trapsin?

Noteable drops as of this play through: Magefist, 4os Partizan which got turned into a fairly high roll insight later on, 4os broadsword which turned into a 35fcr spirit, darkglow, gravepalm, sig armor, sig glove.

Extra note: I've outfitted my merc with Boneflesh, Undead Crown and the aforementioned Insight.

For more screenshot of this particular playthrough click here.

 

[okey]

I don't believe in divine providence but..

I'm starting to believe that there's 3rd party out there somewhere dictating that I should make a Fury Druid.

Same temple, coincidental drops in preceding order.

Now as far as the boss battle is concerned, it was pretty tame.

Merc died once, because damage threshold exceeded leech/heal rate, but it worked out better than the last time I played trapsin ergo no needed to run around like an idiot waiting for traps to kill the boss.

Thus Nissa, lv60 advances arrives on the docks of Kurast.

 

[okey]

Got through A3 and in A4. Screenshot below.

Here lies the remains of an unfortunate Aldur's Druid.

Also happened upon a Headstriker, it's a damn shame though it wasn't ethereal.

And here's for posterity:

 

[okey]

Not much to write with this run through, it's pretty standard trapsin. Got an Um from Hellforge which I plan on making a Grief or Duress out of. Fated the Ribcracker (one lucky druid will be having a blast with it.) Sometime into A5 I cubed up all my jewelry to life/pdr/allres amulets, ended up with these [1] , [2] to tide me over in Hell. Baal puked out crap.

But yes, Nissa..

And for posterity, Moo Moo Farm awarded me with some KoKo milk =]

 

[okey]

Rushed through til A3 sewers and coincidentally leveled in time to equip the Ribcracker

Progression with Ur was rather well.. Happen to net some very nice rares. The first being Demon Splitter, which dropt in Crypt (Blood Raven area), at lvl 17, gambled a nice pair of Demon Brogues which I am still wearing. got a nice Necklace, Raven's Eye, which is fitting for a MF necklace (what I really like it is the mana leech modifier). Got Arctic Binding from Andarial.

Into A2, I pilfered this short spear from Radament, which did wonders for me when I was fighting Duriel. But I digress, once after acquiring the Cube I mass crafted polearms hoping for a Bill of Alacrity, but I made due with this instead.. it works for the most part. Sometime while raiding the Jeryhn's Palace happened upon Arctic Fist.

MF: 178; 205 with merc.
Skill progression was: 5ww, 6lc, 18fe, 1rb, 2fy
Base stats: 100str, 35dex, 70vit, 20nrg(?what is this even?)

 

[okey]

That's the Spirit!(passing off to Rose)

Ur becomes a living freight train when paired with the Ribcracker. Ribby literally allow him to run over just about any standard mob in Normal. And as I was pairing Ur that with his A2 merc equipped with the aforementioned Amp spear just about everything melts.

As far as loots is concerned Ur happened to complete a Beserker Set got a couple of low unique drops from Nithalak Temple (Howl Tusk, Steelcash), and a Sol from Ancient's Way.

There were a NDE while playing Ur reason being I completely neglicted my resistance and was running through A4 with low 20 fire resistance and 0 light resistance. And as you can imagine, tanking Infector spawn pack's fire breath and Diablo's lightning hose didn't go that well, luckily I dealt quick and high enough damage that my life bulb rubberbanded back with Feral Rage'd Fury.

After everything is said and done, Ur socketed and inscribed his name onto a Crystal Sword which he then made a Spirit out of. It was a shame that he had no Amns, however since he had an excess of Rals and Orts Ur was able to cube his way up into an Amn. And that's a lesson on why it's good to always have a chipped topaz on hand

All that said Ur lv48 becomes a Destroyer!

 

[NamelessPenguin]

Very entertaining thread! Keep it up

 

[okey]

Rose furnishing a Tomb with exotic crimson snake leather.

The general run down so far:
I have to be truthful, after being accustomed to the melee oriented bull charging method that I've been employing replaying Rose was challenging quite. That isn't to say it was hard, it was just hard fighting old habits of clashing against mobs at face range.

Luckily, I made Rose with survival in mind, that is to say I loaded her and her merc up with PDR. This would ensure that she wouldn't die in the unlikely situation that she was to get swarmed. Gear requisitioning was tough, as drops weren't that great.. most of the gear was fielded by vendor. On that subject, I had to choose between life and res, and since Rose was built with max vit in mind, and the fact that the issue with poison was a non-issue due to have a Meditation wielding heal merc and Cold enhanced mooks being far and few, I opted for more life. Now that isn't to say that my resistance was horrible, it's just not the best, see:

With that said, Rose lv 60 advances to Kurast Docks.

 

[okey]

I'm Loving it (tm)

So what happened?

Nithalak is a pretty swell guy.

Not only was I fortunate enough to nab a Lum (which I desperately need thanks to poor resistance.. need that Smoke) these two dropt in the same play setting: [1] [2]

I was thinking to myself whether I should go with warscepter or longsword. But since the longsword dropt and coincidentally with 3 sockets to boot, I ended up making this beauty: [1]

All in all my trip through Nithalak's Temple was quite fruitful. 10/10, would raid his fridge again.
For rest of image dump click here

And thus Rose @lv 72 finished her Pic-a-Nic through Nithalak's Temple.

 

[okey]

Nothing too difficult arose (aha! a pun!), the only troublesome obstacle was killing Baal's Minion as per usual. Sadly I did not manage to get a screenshot. But Lister was one cruel miser, the fellow that spawned for me was cold enchanted, however he was also a stone skin extra fast varient. I tried many things in order to kill him, but to make a long story short, I had Rose spam her Telekinesis so on him so he would be hung up in recovery long enough so that my merc can dispatch him.

And after finishing Cows and with out much left to do, Rose finished her cycle while passing on her Lawbringer Longsword to Bain.

Before I ramble off about Bain, I want to point out that that Rose's Lawbringer Longsword is a very fitting item for her. The one of reason is due to its dual fire and cold damage nature which reflect's her dual elemental mastry. But truthfully for me, the biggest reason is, the Rose's Longsword looks much better on the eye than Rose's War Scepter, a longsword fits a spellcaster far better than a bulky mace =].

 

[okey]

Bain: Welcome to the Killing Floor, please wait your turn.

I think I'm inching closer to mastering the the art of surviving HC Hell as a Melee. Initially when I started playing HC, I learned through many bitter experiences that charging in head first is not the key to success. No, rather, it is the skillful manipulation of the topography.

And this is even more important what with Bain, what with him sitting at a pitiful resistance of near 0~ resistance.

They key lies in ambushes and hiding behind choke points, striking foes down at point blank range.

Beyond all that, the second important thing to success is having the right item and luckily for Bain, he got Rose's Longsword: Lawbringer. The Sanctuary aura and CtC Decripify is a literal godsend I am pretty certain that without it I am pretty sure I would be dead right after stepping out of Rogues Camp. In Bain's Hell playthrough, he has been bombarded with ridiculous enhanced enemies, mods such as extra fast, cold enchant, multi-shot, stoneskin were the norm.

This would be a real doozy without Rose's Lawbringer

Did I mention that res wasn't the best? (At time of picture my res was 23/xx/11/xx)
This guy brought me below 30%~ 2 times in the span of a few seconds, I had to down a couple of full purples while dealing with him. Lesson here: Mutli shooting Fire Enchanted Lightning Skeleton really hurts at close range.

Behold the miracles that is Lawbringer
Had to approach this guy from the bottom to avoid his splashes, luckily we have Sanctuary to stagger him every so often making him much more hospitable.

Without Lawbringer, I can say for sure killing him would've been an entire saga-long ordeal. First thing to note, this guy hits hard what with the multi-shot mod, and as an archer, who along with his pack buddies, mana burns, yup, and to make matters even more trivial, he was immune to physical, talk about fun. Luckily Bain brought his Lawbringer to the party.

And thus, Bain lv78@ sweating it out in Lut Gholein.
PS: Aside from Lum that dropt in Pits, loot drops were lousy

 

[okey]

When you see Doom Bang as your enemy, beware!

I can't count how many times I nearly died. Surprisingly my reflexes is still hanging in there as I am still able to respond in a calm fashion potting those purple/red/thawing when needed.

Still, having to constantly walk on a tightrope isn't how I fancy my playthrough, specially on HC. That said, I took it upon myself to browse through Bain's catelog of fine goods to help remedy my pains, that is when I chanced upon what I thought was an unid'd shadowfang but instead was a Crainte Vomir (it's exceptional brethren), see:

On first glance it looked pretty meh, but then I realized something: this thing's got the name survival in plastered all over it. I mean holy crap, built in f/w, a whopping 50ias, 35% slow even!? and what's more -def per hit and last but not the least, what's this 10% pdr?? Holy crap, this is pretty much a shield in the shape of a sword! I also slapt on an upp'd Nightsmoke onto him, unfortunately my perfect string of ears were etherael, so for all intent and purposes I'll only use them for Hell Ancients (since the additional 15% pdr would be ideal).

And without much said, I took it upon myself into respec'ing Bain, I turned him into a more wholesome sword-oriented barb. Though he deals less damage (dropping from 500-1000 to 350-500), he is able to boost not only his hit% from 70% to 90%, he is now capable in hitting targets faster ever than before; this coupled with the aforementioned Crainte Vomir and Lawbringer will more than secure his livelihood in hell.

That said, Far Oasis awaits~

 

[okey]

Noteable snippets in tour through A2.https://imgur.com/4YzYYmV

Storm Widow and Storm Call
Not quite in the order which they were presented, but yes, I happened upon these auspicious couple.

Soul Eaters
Not quite the same as above, but I met a repeat mob while in the process of spring cleaning.

What happens when you kill a Cold Enchanted under the effects of Conviction: Before, After
At this point in time, with Bain sitting quite comfortably with a hefty 3.3k hp, I was wondering what the results would be if I killed something that was enchanted under the effects of conviction.. suffice it to say, don't do it if you can help it (or if you're like me and have quite the HP pool to spare).
https://imgur.com/mc30XVO
Ghostbusting a force ghost yielded me a Lightsabre - stats
The turning point in the tour. I am glad when I respec'd, I had the forethought to sink points to reach 136 dex since I was hoping for a 3os phaseblade to make a Crescent Moon in the near future but would you believe this?-- glad hindsight was not 20/20.

https://imgur.com/nx4RY9D
Duriel yielded me a crapsabre
In retrospect, as per usual Duriel gave me jack-all.

Other things to note:
- 2 phaseblades dropt which I cubed into a 4os and 1os(which I junked).
- still gambling for a better circlet to replace my current 20pdr magic one.
https://imgur.com/VURFo9a
And thus Bain lv81 concludes A2

 

[okey]

Nothing says hello like a group hug when greeting company.

So, to start things off, I want to announce that Bain has completed A3 and A4. As far as notable drops is concerned: an Eth Thresher dropt in Flayers Jungle, and a near perfect Coldsteel Eye from Plains of Dispair, HF dropt a Pul.

Many possible NDE in A3, that is if the monsters were able to chew through 3k worth of HP under the effects of Holy Freeze and Decripify. See: here

Lastly, I wish to say the combination of Lightsabre and Lawbringer really makes the task of clearing out A4 a breeze. Lightsabre made tanking Burning Souls a cinche, whereas Lawbringer's Sanctuarymade clearing Chaos Sanctuary a joke as Oblivion Knights (arguably the most annoying enemy in A4) were constantly KB'd which interrupts much of their spells. Furthermore, Lightsabre also made Diablo's Lightning Hose a joke.

That said, Bain (lv83) is currently sitting at start of A5 as of this posting.

 

[okey]

Bain teaches local Barbarians the way the way the Barbarians do.

This current playthrough has been pretty tame all things considered. The mob types that spawned in the areas weren't that bad, perhaps I am lucky or my mentality of preparing for the absolute worse is getting to me, as the pace has been moving along at a steady pace. Nithalak did not spawn any Tomb Vipers (awesome). Other mentionable thing.. let's see since I don't really use my switch, I've also taken to equipping Edge Bow for faster cheaper vendor visits. It's like always having a member's card on hand and getting those discounts.

That said..

Noteable encounters:
Overseer with F/E/Curse, who happens to be immune to both cold and fire; good luck killing this w/ a sorc.
Sur rune dropt while breaking through enemy lines. Which I will keep and cube it up into a Ber.
Threshsocket with Stoneskin/Light/Curse, who happens to be immune to cold; again good luck killing this w/ a sorc.
Demon Blood Lord with Stoneskin/Extra strong/Mana burn; This guy was a doozy, since his immunity can't be broken I had to rely on the elemental portion to chip away at his health. Each of his blows dealt a good 100-200.. luckily HF aura, Kelpie Snare, and Decripify slowed him down to make tanking him a possibility.
Bonesaw pack dropt Bain's health pool below 30% couple of times within span of half a dozen seconds.. These guys do too much absurd charge damage.
Quill Rat with L/Cursed/Multishot, who does moderate amount of unlisted poison damage per quill.. As you can see the this fella and his pack dropt my health by quite a bit.
Finally cubed a 5os PB. Bain has finally scored his Grief base after going through 4 pbs (both drops and cubed). Now all Bain needs is a 3os PB.
Butcher's Pupil dropt - stats; Initially I thought of upgrading and using it but I've grown so accustumed to the Lightsabre and I don't feel like spending a Pul and Lum which I may use for other things (like an Oath or something along those lines).

That said Bain (lv83), awaits his next trials @ Frozen Tundra.

 

[okey]

"And so, as the one known as Bain etched his name in the Annals of Guardians, Fate's weave over him slowly loosens.."

Short Tidbits for this particular playthrough:
- Frenzytaurs are a pain to deal with.. In fact I've been blessed with them for nearly all the stages of the game.. The best part is they all seemedd to either spawned with Cursed or Extra Strong/Fast or combination of both with other mods.
- No notable loot dropt -- that includes Cows as well.
- If I haven't mentioned it enough, let me say it again: Kelpie Snare, Holy Freeze Aura, and Decripfy really makes all this possible.
- img dump of this play through here

I will do a seperate comprehensive post detailing Bain in the near future, but as I am short on time, I'll put that on hold..

Thus, Bain (lv85) completes his cycle..