- Feb 19, 2021
- 177
- 255
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Good evening friends. Here I humbly introduce my 3rd character to take down Baal; Kelthra, an FA/Strafe zon. She is the "Almost" zon because in fairly rapid succession, she went from almost "Fauxdian", to almost Single Pass, to almost untwinked. What began as a really fun class to play devolved into a really frustrating and disappointing slog in Act V hell, but I did learn a few lessons along the way, so it wasn't a complete loss.
After taking a Barb and Sorc through the game, I wanted to play a class I hadn't yet finished the game with, and my highest level Zon back in the old days met her death in Act 1 Hell, and I never got around to making another one. Much like the Sorc, the game was a breeze in Normal/NM; the Valk is a tremendous tank, and when combined with the Merc, I was largely ignored by mobs. Freezing Arrow obliterated almost everything in its path, and I climbed the ladder using "Edge"; starting with it in a Cedar Bow, then in a Blade Bow, and finally a Spider Bow. It is an obnoxiously good item, but there are some hindrances, like the lack of weapon ED.
Unlike my other characters, the Zon suffered no huge drags in early Hell, even playing at P3 for a bit; mobs, packs, bosses were all fairly easy; although Diablo provided an interesting challenge; he was at low health, and trapped me in a bone prison; I was about to suffer my first death, when he just died. Was it from the +15 Thorns aura Edge provided? I do not know but the pride I felt in having no deaths through that point would prove to be short-lived.
Act V started out tough; lots of archers proved a challenge, and as I am a dummy who did not utilize Dim Vision, I adopted a rudimentary flanking strategy using the decoy to bait the arrows while I came in with broadsides behind the Merc & Valk. This proved to be efficient enough, but the dream of the Fauxdian died in the Frigid Highlands; caught between 2 packs of archers, I died trying to rescue my 2nd set of Barbarians.
While dismayed, I still intended to go untwinked Single Pass. But the mobs were really becoming harder to handle, especially CI's; Edge was no friend to Strafe, and I really wanted to get to a point where I could be confident taking on packs, so I started doing some rerunning. Very little, maybe 15-20 total runs through the Pit, AT, Andy, LK...which yielded nothing. In essence it was a single pass character, but I did try to find better gear.
Getting through the areas proved to be tough; I died to Nihlathak (first time I ever recall this happening), because I wasn't wearing my Nature's Peace. 2nd time was easier with it on. The areas leading up to the Ancients were becoming extremely difficult; meeting death in the Drifter Cavern twice, before I let go of the last part of the equation, and added Harmony to my arsenal. It was a gift from my son, and I had thought to use it post-Baal, but I am glad I gave in and used it, because I would not have got past our friendly mountain climbers without it.
The Ancients...oi. I died about 4-5 times up there, too slow to cast a TP, and doing way too little damage. But I noticed that the merc and Valk didn't hold aggro all that well with them, and then I decided to twink some more, giving my merc the gear my sorc's was using. This proved to be a good idea, because I one shot them after that, the open wounds from Meatscraper proving to be crucial in getting Madawc down first. The killing fight lasted well over 10 minutes, and a few earlier tries were quite lengthy as well. But this did not prepare me for...
Baal. I died once during my Baal kill, and I am fairly certain this was the first time I have ever died to Baal. Even with Harmony, I could not do enough damage to Baal to make an impact, and his slow attack made me walk in jello...but it would have been less lengthy if I'd remembered to wear my ring with half freeze duration, instead of...Nature's Peace (notice a trend?) I finally found a few sweet spots where I could fire at will and eventually, Baal bit the big one...and dropped 3 garbo rares, but he did drop an Essence, and now I can make a reset token, if I need one.
In review, as I said n the intro, the build was frustrating. Plagued by poor drops and slow play, Hell was not as much fun as you'd have assumed from how easy NM was. In hindsight, a staff with Static Field charges would have been a big help, so I'll start shopping for those with my next character along with my now mandatory life tap wand.
So what is up next? I may try a Fire Bear/Wolf, a Fishymancer, or a Blessed Hammer Paladin. Eventually I'll try an assassin as well, but that might not be until D2R; it took me two months to mat the zon, and I'm guessing I'll be able to get two chars through to the end before the remaster goes live.
Many thanks for reading, and stats/gear are as follows:
End game stats (regular/geared), Level 85
STR 109/109
Dex 152/166
Vita 239/239
Energy 15/15
Life 1127
Mana 273
Resists: 75/33/64/20
Skills:
20/26 Freezing Arrow
20/26 Strafe
20/26 Cold Arrow (synergy for FA)
13/18 Valk
3/6 Deadly Strike
4/7 Penetrate
3/6 Pierce
The rest in prereqs
Gear
"Harmony" +3 Grand Matron Bow, 243% ED, +3 to Valk
Skin of the Vipermagi, 11 MDR, 26 Resist All
Rare Coronet: +1 to Zon skills, 48% ED to Demons, +40 Life, socketed by Larzuk, Ort in the socket
Rare Ammy, 8 Mana Leech, +22 life, +74 Mana, 22 FR, 32 PR
Laying of Hands
Sigons Belt (181 defense at 85)
Sigons Boots
Rare Ring 1: 58 Mana, 11 CR, 12 LR
Rare Ring 2: 88 AR, +16 Life, 15 FR, 20 PR, 1/2 Freeze duration
Natures Peace used where it makes sense (and as mentioned above, one time where it didn't)
Fletchers Grand Charm (+1 to Bowskills)
Various Resist charms
Merc:
Rockstopper
Shaftstop
Eth upped Meat Scraper, 115-596, 175% ED, 10% LL
This gear was borrowed from the Sorc's merc; up until the Ancients, he used an Insight Partizan, Gris Armor w/ 3 PTopaz, and Tal's Mask (quite underrated!)
Finds: Nature's Peace (Pindle's garden), Mal Rune (Hellforge)...and that is really all.
Edit: An egregious amount of typos.
After taking a Barb and Sorc through the game, I wanted to play a class I hadn't yet finished the game with, and my highest level Zon back in the old days met her death in Act 1 Hell, and I never got around to making another one. Much like the Sorc, the game was a breeze in Normal/NM; the Valk is a tremendous tank, and when combined with the Merc, I was largely ignored by mobs. Freezing Arrow obliterated almost everything in its path, and I climbed the ladder using "Edge"; starting with it in a Cedar Bow, then in a Blade Bow, and finally a Spider Bow. It is an obnoxiously good item, but there are some hindrances, like the lack of weapon ED.
Unlike my other characters, the Zon suffered no huge drags in early Hell, even playing at P3 for a bit; mobs, packs, bosses were all fairly easy; although Diablo provided an interesting challenge; he was at low health, and trapped me in a bone prison; I was about to suffer my first death, when he just died. Was it from the +15 Thorns aura Edge provided? I do not know but the pride I felt in having no deaths through that point would prove to be short-lived.
Act V started out tough; lots of archers proved a challenge, and as I am a dummy who did not utilize Dim Vision, I adopted a rudimentary flanking strategy using the decoy to bait the arrows while I came in with broadsides behind the Merc & Valk. This proved to be efficient enough, but the dream of the Fauxdian died in the Frigid Highlands; caught between 2 packs of archers, I died trying to rescue my 2nd set of Barbarians.
While dismayed, I still intended to go untwinked Single Pass. But the mobs were really becoming harder to handle, especially CI's; Edge was no friend to Strafe, and I really wanted to get to a point where I could be confident taking on packs, so I started doing some rerunning. Very little, maybe 15-20 total runs through the Pit, AT, Andy, LK...which yielded nothing. In essence it was a single pass character, but I did try to find better gear.
Getting through the areas proved to be tough; I died to Nihlathak (first time I ever recall this happening), because I wasn't wearing my Nature's Peace. 2nd time was easier with it on. The areas leading up to the Ancients were becoming extremely difficult; meeting death in the Drifter Cavern twice, before I let go of the last part of the equation, and added Harmony to my arsenal. It was a gift from my son, and I had thought to use it post-Baal, but I am glad I gave in and used it, because I would not have got past our friendly mountain climbers without it.
The Ancients...oi. I died about 4-5 times up there, too slow to cast a TP, and doing way too little damage. But I noticed that the merc and Valk didn't hold aggro all that well with them, and then I decided to twink some more, giving my merc the gear my sorc's was using. This proved to be a good idea, because I one shot them after that, the open wounds from Meatscraper proving to be crucial in getting Madawc down first. The killing fight lasted well over 10 minutes, and a few earlier tries were quite lengthy as well. But this did not prepare me for...
Baal. I died once during my Baal kill, and I am fairly certain this was the first time I have ever died to Baal. Even with Harmony, I could not do enough damage to Baal to make an impact, and his slow attack made me walk in jello...but it would have been less lengthy if I'd remembered to wear my ring with half freeze duration, instead of...Nature's Peace (notice a trend?) I finally found a few sweet spots where I could fire at will and eventually, Baal bit the big one...and dropped 3 garbo rares, but he did drop an Essence, and now I can make a reset token, if I need one.
In review, as I said n the intro, the build was frustrating. Plagued by poor drops and slow play, Hell was not as much fun as you'd have assumed from how easy NM was. In hindsight, a staff with Static Field charges would have been a big help, so I'll start shopping for those with my next character along with my now mandatory life tap wand.
So what is up next? I may try a Fire Bear/Wolf, a Fishymancer, or a Blessed Hammer Paladin. Eventually I'll try an assassin as well, but that might not be until D2R; it took me two months to mat the zon, and I'm guessing I'll be able to get two chars through to the end before the remaster goes live.
Many thanks for reading, and stats/gear are as follows:
End game stats (regular/geared), Level 85
STR 109/109
Dex 152/166
Vita 239/239
Energy 15/15
Life 1127
Mana 273
Resists: 75/33/64/20
Skills:
20/26 Freezing Arrow
20/26 Strafe
20/26 Cold Arrow (synergy for FA)
13/18 Valk
3/6 Deadly Strike
4/7 Penetrate
3/6 Pierce
The rest in prereqs
Gear
"Harmony" +3 Grand Matron Bow, 243% ED, +3 to Valk
Skin of the Vipermagi, 11 MDR, 26 Resist All
Rare Coronet: +1 to Zon skills, 48% ED to Demons, +40 Life, socketed by Larzuk, Ort in the socket
Rare Ammy, 8 Mana Leech, +22 life, +74 Mana, 22 FR, 32 PR
Laying of Hands
Sigons Belt (181 defense at 85)
Sigons Boots
Rare Ring 1: 58 Mana, 11 CR, 12 LR
Rare Ring 2: 88 AR, +16 Life, 15 FR, 20 PR, 1/2 Freeze duration
Natures Peace used where it makes sense (and as mentioned above, one time where it didn't)
Fletchers Grand Charm (+1 to Bowskills)
Various Resist charms
Merc:
Rockstopper
Shaftstop
Eth upped Meat Scraper, 115-596, 175% ED, 10% LL
This gear was borrowed from the Sorc's merc; up until the Ancients, he used an Insight Partizan, Gris Armor w/ 3 PTopaz, and Tal's Mask (quite underrated!)
Finds: Nature's Peace (Pindle's garden), Mal Rune (Hellforge)...and that is really all.
Edit: An egregious amount of typos.
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