Matriarch Phoenix, Untwinked Enchantress

[Cattleya]

I've been messing around in D2R since it released, but I haven't made a whole lot of progress. After losing my HC frost zealot in late nightmare (and refreshing the idea that HC really isn't for me) I decided that I should start back at the beginning and just focus on getting one character through the game without getting too bogged down into planning and extra rules. My very first character to beat Hell Baal was Pheonix, a scythe wielding Passion enchantress, and that seemed like a place to start. So, this time armed with spell-check and the maybe not so brilliant determination to do it untwinked, Phoenix the Enchantress was born.

The Best Laid Plans...​

Rather than do a lot of planning, I decided to just jump right in. I did decide that I'd try to look for throwing knives and javelins to use as her main weapon. The sorceress gets an okay attack speed with stabbing, and it would allow for a shield. (Untwinked, Rhyme is one of the more reliable sources of Cannot Be Frozen.) It would also allow for a ranged attack when it was too nasty to get into melee.

That plan was altered almost immediately when she picked up a Gull dagger in the Cave Level 2. So, stabbing was in, but throwing was out for the foreseeable future. Normal Baal dropped a Butcher's Pupil which was looking pretty tempting as the Gull dagger was really not cutting it anymore. She had to wait for the upgrade though, as she was still several levels shy of 39. The Butcher's Pupil was a noticeable upgrade, but it's time of service was short lived. At level 45 while running NM Countess, the Hellcast crossbow dropped. With that, Phoenix became a ranged enchantress and equipped the weapon that she would finish the game with.

Stats (with gear)​

Level: 83
STR: 70 (74)
DEX: 30 (58)
VIT: 155 (155) [549 life]
ENG: 169 (189) [547 mana]
81 unspent stat points

Fire Resist: -4 | Lightning Resist: -5 | Cold Resist: -28 | Poison Resist: 49%

Damage (according to the LCS): 2437-3125

59% FHR (9 frames, and 1% short of the next breakpoint)
20% IAS for a blazing fast 18 frame attack
25% FCR (11 frames)

Skills [prebuff]​

Frozen Armor: 1 [4]

Static Field: 1
Telekinesis: 18
Teleport: 1
Energy Shield: 8 [14]

Warmth: 20
Enchant: 20 [26]
Fire Mastery: 20 [23]

(One point in all needed pre-reqs.)

Gear​

• Weapon: Hellcast Heavy Crossbow
• Weapon Swap: +3 Enchant Memory Staff
• Helm: Rare Skull Cap — 10% FHR | 17% Cold Resist | 26 Poison Resist | 25 % Poison Length Reduction
• Neck: Magic — 20 Energy | 15 Resist All
• Armor: Stealth Studded Leather
• Gloves: Crafted Heavy Blood Gloves — 1-3 Fire Damage | 1% Life Steal | 9% Crushing Blow | +3 Strength | +18 Life
• Belt: Magic Plate Belt — 24% FHR | 9% Lightning Resist
• Boots: Rare Greaves 10% Fire Resist | 29% Poison Resist | 21% Magic Find
• Ring 1: Raven Frost (194 AR/19 Dex)
• Ring 2: Rare — 117 AR | +1 Strength | 12% Lightning Resist | 19% Poison Resist | 2 Damage Reduction
• Charms: Gheeds (107/30/15), various life and resist charms

Mercenary Gear (Maeko, cold rogue)​

• Weapon: +1 Amazon Skills Insight Matriarchal Bow (Level 14 Meditation Aura)
• Armor: The Spirit Shroud Ghost Armor
• Helm: Rare Skull Cap 10% FHR | 25% ED | +2 ENG | 25% Poison Length Reduction

Interesting Finds​

Terrorized NM Stony Tomb gifted her a Raven Frost (which returned the CBF she'd lost at the beginning of NM when she went ranged.)

She picked up a Gheed's (107% GF, 30% MF, 15% Vendor) in the Dry Hills on Hell, and a Lightsaber while picking up some levels in the Stony Tomb.

Nightmare hellforge dropped a Lum, which went into a Memory staff, and Hell hellforge dropped a Hel. *sigh* The highest rune she saw was a Fal.

Overall Thoughts​

This was my first character to beat the game untwinked. It's nice to have that crossed off the D2 bucket list (and to have done it with a build that you don't often see untwinked) but I'm not sure I'm going to feel a big urge to do a lot more untwinked characters.

The changes to ranged Enchant in 2.6 are probably one of the only reasons I managed this at all with my sanity in check. (The other big one being the 2.4 changes to mercenaries adding frozen arrow to the cold rogues, making her a reasonable solution to fire immunes.) Stuff that wasn't FI or highly resistant melted (at least at /p1) even with her crappy gear. The mercenary did a reasonably competent job with most of the rest of it — at least when directed with teleport. (Although FICI monsters sucked.) I died a lot, although the fact that I died less as I moved further into hell probably points to skill being at least partially in play.

The playstyle involved a whole lot of teleporting and kiting while Phoenix and Maeko both sniped at the monsters.

Most of the game was cleared on /p1, which meant she also spent a lot of time under-leveled. (Normal Baal was killed at 33.) It was a bit of a vicious cycle. Being under-leveled made it harder to clear at higher settings, and lower settings made it harder to get ahead in levels. She completed all the quests (although may rewards are still uncollected) and got all the WPs. She did a little bit of teleporting through areas, but for the most part I cleared stuff as I moved through. (She died enough that having a clear path for body retrieval was generally useful.)

At some point I'll have to try it again with proper gear. Without any pierce, she was really just a low +skills Fireball sorc with terrible FCR and no shield.

 

[SirName]

Nicely done. These untwinked playthroughs are always fun to read. They remind me how they are not something I should try with my patience.

This also sent me on a enchant sorc theorycrafting session. Now added to todo list.

Was ES worth it (other than being cool) vs just pumping vitality and diverting skill points to X?

 

[Cattleya]

Was ES worth it (other than being cool) vs just pumping vitality and diverting skill points to X?

It wasn't nearly as effective as I remember it being with my melee twinked Insight Enchantresses back in LoD (which I remember being nearly immortal outside of Gloams and mana burn) but it was still definitely worth it. Enchant completes with 62 points, so you've got room to play skill-point wise and Insight does a decent job of keeping the mana bulb replenished. Using Insight on the merc this time around did mean that if she died, it was an immediate trip to town to revive her, especially before I had a bunch of points in telekenesis to mitigate the mana drain. If I did it again, I would have focused telekenesis before ES — I did it the other way around which I think was a mistake.

Twinked, you can come up with options with +skills to get ES into the diminishing returns level without any hard points in it (or its pre-reqs) at all. (Either with a memory staff or a +ES Call to Arms staff.) The only thing you need mana for in combat is teleport, and with enough +skills lowering the cost, that's less of an issue. (With my whopping 0 +skills on my main weapon swap, I had to be in the habit of hitting a pot to teleport to safety when stuff got nasty.)

 

[maxicek]

Congratulations on the un-twinked Matriarch. +Style points for the Heavy Crossbow too.

I'm a bit surprised you didn't keep the Spirit Shroud for yourself - And no Lore helm?

 

[Cattleya]

I can't remember for sure why I put the Spirit Shroud on the merc. I probably found it either when I was still using Rhyme or after I found the Ravenfrost so the hit recovery and cast rate on the Stealth seemed like a better deal than the skill point.

As for Lore, I had the worst luck with Sol runes, and the ones I found kept getting funneled into Insights for the merc. (Part of me was also hoping for a Pul rune for a Wisdom for some pierce — and before the Raven Frost CBF.) And I kind of just forgot how terrible my helm was — which is largely an indication of how poorly suited my brain is for untwinked play.