March of the Doomed - Running Thread

[skoolbus]

So, I'm in a bit of a pickle here and could use some advice from anyone who's been in a similar situation or has any ideas. I started out in Hell with Terra (MS and FA zon) and her AR is simply unacceptable. We're talking less than 50% chance to hit blood moor fallens. What I have done, after painfully clearing the den, was throw on Angelic armor (she doesn't have the ammy) and 2 angelic rings. This gets her AR up high enough for about a 75-80% chance to hit. However, now I am wasting 3 valuable equipment slots just so that she can miss less often. This is causing her extreme mana issues and her resists are about 0. A couple of options stick out to me:

1) Hire a BA Merc. Best case scenario, I think this may free up 1 ring spot. I'm currently using might, but better AR will work out to more damage. (I probably should do this regardless when I get to Act II)

2) Use a seal on Penetrate. I'm a little hesitant to do this because there's still 3 damnations left and if the worst were to happen (MS, Decoy, and FA get damned) I will be playing the world's worst passivezon for Act V.

3) Respec and use a seal on Penetrate. I have a lot of wasted skill points that would allow me to get Penetrate fairly high. I would be limited to only putting 5 points in Critical Strike, is that correct @Babyhell? If so, that's not a huge deal, once again more AR will be more damage than a few extra % crit.

4) Pump Inner Sight (could get to around level 12 right now). I kind of like this option, but having virtually no experience with Inner Sight I don't know if this will make the slightest difference in chance to hit. Does anyone know how impactful it is?

Unfortunately, using charms to boost AR isn't going to be an option, I don't have enough good ones to get it high enough and then her resists and life would be even worse than they are now.

I think I can limp through Act I with her as she currently stands, but there's no way she can finish hell like this. Just trying to talk out options and see if anyone has some advice. My thought is try Inner Sight through the rest of Act I, hope I avoid getting MS damned, then hire a BA merc, respec and use a seal on Penetrate. Thoughts?

 

[skoolbus]

Managed to do the rest of Act I with Terra. I really have no idea what was going on in this screenshot:


There's a wild rogue scout on patrol in the Cold Plains. I tried following her around for a bit to see if she would attack mobs and give Terra a bonus party member, but I didn't notice her until after I'd cleared a lot of area around her, and eventually gave up since she mostly walked in circles (sound familiar?). Terra spent the majority of her PGems rerolling jewels once she found ones that could roll 40%ED:


Didn't get any that will be usable unfortunately. Not a whole lot of S/U's dropped for her before Andy, only a unique Battle Hammer and then War Hammer, but she's at ~15% MF so not surprising. She did luck out with a 4 socket Thresher dropping really early, the Cave I think, so the merc got a handsome weapon upgrade. The next find was one of the best items I've ever shopped. I had been checking armors every time I went to town, but not actively trying to shop it:


It will go well with her 3os/+27 life helmet she's currently wearing (with all 3 of the 15%IAS jewels she's found). Though right now she still has to use Angelic's armor, and unless I find more IAS or ED jewels (she has 2 ~28%ED jewels), I'll probably just hold on to it for now. Andy actually put up a decent fight. She instantly vaporized the merc, and I just stopped reviving him. The fight was an endless cycle of: shoot 2 or 3 Freezing Arrows, recast Decoy, and keep casting Valk on cooldown. Eventually she went down. Did pretty much full clears of the act on /p3.


I'll try Rockstopper on the merc for a bit, see if he can survive with no life leech or not. Time for another damnation!

I went ahead and hired a BA merc, so I'm eager to see what her AR situation now. It helps that she's leveled a bit to 79 as well. But if anyone has any AR advice, I'm all ears lol.

 

[Vildecor]

@skoolbus - Rolled a 1: Jab.

Hopefully that BA merc helps your AR out. Good luck!

 

[skoolbus]

More progress to report with Terra. She started out Act II on /p3 with her AR in the pits of hell. Fortunately, Ahsab the BA merc provided her with a good chance to hit!


I didn't realize BA was going to actually triple my AR, I thought it just added another +300% somewhere in the equation not terribly impactful, same as Might typically. Still, she was forced to use Angelic armor and at least one ring. This provided ~90% chance to hit with both rings, which is nothing to sneeze at. It was pretty smooth sailing now. She found a Glimmershred in the Maggot Lair, haven't found one of those in ages, so that was cool:


She also found this bizarrely named sword. A yellow version of a different gold sword:


Most of Act II wasn't too bad until the Claw Viper Temple. Level 1 was manageable, thankfully no resurrecting mummies, but the vipers are cold immune, and thus can't be frozen, so they were really turning Ahsab into a punching bag. And unfortunately I needed to go revive him every time, since Terra can't hit without him. It got so bad, I had to swap out his Insight for the Hone Sundan, because it had an Amn in it for the life leech. It made him die a little slower, but he still was getting eaten alive. Level 2 was bad. Real bad. I did put it on /p1 in anticipation of things being challenging and that was a good call. The stairs were free of mobs but Fangskin and crew along with a bunch of CI skeletons were encountered pretty quick. I unfortunately kept retreating and pulling them towards the stairs. Eventually I had created quick a nasty stair trap for Terra when she came back from the third Ahsab revive.

At this point I made the decision to throw on a teleport ammy and try and go to the altar, thinking that would at least create a defendable choke point. What I didn't realize, that with 0 FCR, probably 0 FHR, and D/A/E constantly activating, teleporting is all but impossible. By the time I had teleported twice to the altar, I had used up most my of my rejuvs, and wouldn't you know it, there's a pack of skeletons at the altar. Still surrounded by skeletons and with resurrectors shooting at her (and some fanat enchanted pack I never actually saw) she was losing life pretty quick and not really killing much. I could tell it was coming before it did, but went down with the ship:


As you can see in the pic, Fangskin and crew were still there, and to be honest, the least of her troubles. This was such a dire situation for a character relying on freezing as the only decent crowd control in cramped spaces. If I had known that Fangskin would prove to be the easiest fight down here, I'd have tried to battle him at the foot of the stairs. I also may have been able to TP out, but I was too slow. This was one of the worst situations I've ever encountered in D2 and think it would have been extremely challenging for any character.

For the most part, I was quite enjoying the bowazon and I think I'll probably try another at some point, though give her some help with items. It was a lot of fun when she did lots of damage, but when she didn't, it was more like a chore. I don't think I would enter again, even though Terra was really lucky with damnations, I was less of a fan of this tournament than I expected. I like being able to plan out things and not waste stat/skill points.

Good luck @Vildecor and everyone else still in! Thanks @Babyhell for hosting!

 

[Babyhell]

@skoolbus that teleport move was.... audacious? Well you tried things during your journey, that was pretty nice to read & follow indeed.

HC is that thing which makes us definitely need to plan more than anything, and well this journey is all about... failure, somehow. Damnation. Hence the name... If I had more time I would give a shot with an Amazon or a Paladin, but well... less than 30 minutes a day, that's just good for some (quick) RFL running!

 

[Vildecor]

After running NM Baal to level 75 and clearing out the cow level, MacLeod journeyed into Hell difficulty. Resists weren't looking too good, but all were at least positive except for poison. More grand charms were found to boost resists to fire, lightning, and poison, making boss packs less deadly. The mercenary is holding his own quite well, which is very nice.

The only good find from Act I was this rune:



After killing 3 Tainted boss packs in Andariel's throne room, we finally took her down as well.



The ring turned out to be a Dwarf Star, which could be useful once I decide to remove my Nagelring. Frenzy, Double Swing, and Battle Orders are all maxxed. Skill points are now being evenly placed in Mace Mastery and Taunt.

I'm ready for my next damnation!

How to fill the table
SP SC SR D2R Forum Name        Character Name       Class   Level Location                Score  Date
-- -- -- --- ----------        --------------       -----   ----- --------                -----  ----
         D2R Dazliare          Sentinel              Pal    01    Rogue Camp              Higher than Babyhell
         D2R Vang              Swoon                 Bar    81    Guardian                45     01/27/2022
SP       D2R Jcakes            Hades                 Nec    84    Guardian                54     02/04/2022
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.2)     Nec    83    Guardian                51     02/09/2022
         D2R Vildecor          MacLeod               Bar    77    H Lut Gholein           33     03/30/2022
SP       D2R Grisu             Karrin                Asn    ??    Kurast Docks            06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to ashes (aka Deeds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         D2R Vang              Refractor             Dru    67    Frozen Tundra NM        27
SP       D2R ffs               Pound                 Pal    77    H Claw Viper Temple     39
         D2R D4di56lu3         DevaZR                Asn    68    Nihlathak's Temple      27
SP       D2R lizard            Appolonia             Ama    50    The Pit NM              18
         D2R Vang              HoboJones             Dru    46    Pand. Fortress          15
         D2R Babyhell          TheDeadman (it.1)     Nec    22    Arcane Sanctuary        03
         D2R Vang              Cronan                Bar    14    Lut Gholein             06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ready for my next damnation (skill please).

Spoiler: MacLeod's Damnations

Act Damnation          Royal Seal used (skill only)
No1 Howl               N
No2 Polearm Mastery    N
No3 Battle Cry         N
No4 Grim Ward          N
No5 Battle Command     N

NM1 Increased Stamina  N
NM2 Double Throw       N
NM3 War Cry            N
NM4 Concentrate        N
NM5 Increased Speed    N

He1 -                  N
He2 -                  N
He3 -                  N
He4 -                  N

Reset used (if any)
Normal    during <Act>
Nightmare during <Act>
Hell      during <Act>

 

[D4di56lu3]

@Vildecor rolled 8 -> throwing mastery, you’re welcome