This thread inspired me to do a quick video commentary. It probably won't help you at all, but you might still enjoy it. Last part gets cut off because bandicam doesn't allow video over 10 min and I didn't realize it had gone on so long.
P.S. Tell me if you can understand what the hell I am saying. The sound quality seems really bad- I'll improve on it.
@zaphod - It sounds like mic difficulties. I didn't watch it all, but skipped to where Tran Athulua picks up. It's got some heavy distortion/background noise. Not sure what it's picking up, but it sounds like a fan or dishwasher is right behind you. You might be able to change the settings so that it picks up less background noise, but not sure - I've only used my microphone a couple of times. Some of it is audible, but the microphone volume also gets drowned out by Wyrmshot and other ingame noises, so there are points where the ingame volume should be turned down a bit.
Mitsuki was level 49 when she went for Tran Athulua - I couldn't recall if she had to do it before level 50, or on level 50, so I took the safer option. Level 50 would have been fine as well, but wasn't sure at the time.
With the first Level Challenge done, Mitsuki moved on to Act 4.
First challenge was Izual, who didn't seem any different. I thought he would've been amped up a bit, but there's no harm in having some easy super-uniques.
Hephasto was fast. And quite hard hitting, as he went through Mitsuki's Fire Elementals very quickly. Zaphods advice of not getting hit was taken, and Mitsuki didn't get hit. She did have a very nice bridge where she could fire safely across lava, although, she went for a risk and tried to get closer to him - to do more consistent damage.
And Hephasto has an annoying ice barrier. The barrier itself is fine. It knocks you back, so you can't pass through it. But what happens if you're already against a wall? You. Can't. Move!
You can shoot, and cast portals, but you can't move! You get trapped, continuously being knocked back into the wall behind you.
Nicely done.
Yea, I'll try to improve the sound a bit. Also the next video will be me trying a hardcore character in ultimative and failing ( or not ).
In Frigid highlands, you will come across detonators. These are one hit killers so stay away from them, pick them off from range and dodge the slowly moving fireball.
Oh, I know about Detonators... Too well. With my first exploration of HC and Median ages ago (Pouncazon and another spear skill,) she absolutely dominated. Telepounce from one enemy to the next, pick up the red health globes she can spawn, and move straight on to the next.
Until...
*Pounce, pounce, pounce, pounce*
*loud explosion and amazon-death-scream*
*X was killed by Detonator*
Me: ... WTF was that!?!
I didn't even see what it was, but I'll be looking and checking every name until I work out what they are. I did read about the slow fireballs, so I'll try to see what fires them. It's the section I'm most worried about, because I don't know what caused it.
Just found that you could cube Unique Amulets and Rings, so tried a few out - I looked for a couple that would benefit Mitsuki, and... Got this... Not sure what use it is, but it's an interesting unique anyway.
Also, does anyone know what monster uses this attack? It was quite dangerous, semi-homing, and could pierce walls/map barriers to a degree. It basically stopped some running in the Durance of Hate - I didn't want to take any risk, as it seems like the Manglers(?) in Travincal that can do serious damage if you stand still. And I couldn't even get close enough, or move around a corner to get a look at them without a large barrage of those shots.
Idiot ball is terrible. Just throw it away.
Um, I don't know what that attack is. If you can tell what monster uses it, I can look up the ability on the docs.
Manglers use storm crows ( assassin skill ), but that's not what's in the pic.
Detonators have the same graphic as the mine guys in act 2. When killed, they emit a slow moving fireball that will move towards your location ( not tracking ). It is a one hitter, but very slow and easy to avoid.
Detonators are, iirc, only in the frigid plains level.
Other dangers in Act 5 are thorn aura monsters ( not a problem for range character ), destroyer wolf riders ( guard towers ), and the whole WSK is filled with dangerous elites. Baal has one hit mechanics as well.
That is awesome if it is true! I'm just wondering whether Vitality can go into the negatives, and if that would cause a death in town.
Mitsuki progressed a little further, knowing the Detonators were up next. I honestly thought they would be big 'Shenk'-like monsters - not those little gremlin buggers. Fortunately, Mitsuki picked out their explosive charges and dodged them easily. Much better with a strong ranged character, than Pouncing right on top of them.
I find the Travincal Council (in Acts 4 and 5) are pretty cool. I like what Laz did with the Lightning Hose
Mitsuki ran into some Trap Rats, and found them quite dangerous. She just couldn't stand in front of the volleys of spines, so she hid around the corner until they forgot about her. There were also these sweet Goatmen, who explode the goat corpses into multiple more Goatmen. Scary stuff if you're not prepared, but no screeny.
But steadily, she progressed through the icy caves, and frozen tundras, rescued Anya, and made it back to the Barbarian encampment for a rest.
There's a nasty insta-deeds waiting just before reaching Anya - where the Abominable superunique used to be. Send summonables up first, because there's some creepy teleporters that just appear out of nowhere...
[highlight]Up Next: Nihlathak and the Ancients[/highlight]
Well done so far!
Since you have access to act 5, you might consider doing some IOTSS runs to stock up on gold for honorifics and other stuff. Stay away from the bosses though.
Nihilithak uses Rathma's chosen on minions. You might want to back off from them until the effect wears off.
There's also destroyer wolf riders and a whole lot of nasty stuff in the Nihlithak levels. Halls of vaught entrance is usually stairtrapped.
You absolutely must have your resistances maxed by now. There'll be a bunch of witches that cast mythal ( aka lower resist curse ) which will reduce res by around 40%, so take that into account and overstack a bit.
So, very shortly after the last update, Mitsuki continued on her quest to defeat Hatred (Normal difficulty.) And...
[highlight]GG Noob[/highlight]
GG Noob, while searching for Nihlathak's waypoint.
She got careless, didn't pick off everything before moving on, and agro'd too much from too many angles. She was alive one second, and dead the next. One of the unique Fallen Shamen (Storm Shamen) picked her off from over a screen away, and Mitsuki had no where to retreat to. Those Storm Shamen are very dangerous if you don't pick them off early, and let them get their missiles off.
And so, that makes [highlight]Pharphis the winner! Congratulations![/highlight]
As per the original post, I am offering Pharphis any 5 items of his choice from my stashes for correctly picking the location of Mitsuki's deeds - Act 5 Middle Areas. All items are HC FAM 1.13d - Most recent patch - and I will be in contact to send Flavie/text dumps soon.
As to my playthrough of Median XL, it is not yet over! After Mitsuki's deeds, I loaded the Softcore Amazon, and played her through the rest of Normal (there were no challenges between Mitsuki's deeds and Baal which I would have been concerned about - there were dangers, but easy to overcome with proper play and tactics.) Unfortunately, Softcore doesn't have the risk/challenge that I enjoy, and I began allowing her to die. Time and time again, and while exploring the mod, that's good, but I didn't put any thought into her weapons/items, because she could just reload, and try again. Her items/survival suffered, and she suffered more deaths to things that wouldn't have a chance of causing death in HC.
So, I made another HC Wyrmshot Bowazon! Kana (Japanese for forgiveness,) who is even stronger and smarter than Mitsuki, and already making good progress. I shall update a few screenshots of her in the coming days as she passes Nihlathak, Baal and into Terror difficulty!
Thankyou for the tips, info, motivation and reading along. My next goal (after finishing Hatred and Baal with Kana,) will be to try get a SC MP group for Median.
Aaah nooo!
I had forgotten about storm shamans- they are indeed very dangerous. You need to get RIP on item ( catalyst of destruction recipe ) to shut down those bad boys, as they won't be able to cast fairy rings ( or revive fallens ). Also, retreat when seeing wolf riders, you can not tank those guard towers on a glass cannon like bowazon.
But anyway nice that you didn't give up , you are playing it again! Are you using items from the previous playthrough?
I think I will start an hc character of my own. Video coming soon!
IOTSS= Island of the sunless sea aka Drifter cavern ( glacial trail ). Main thing about it is that it drops tons and tons of gold and I remember it really helped me the first time because there aren't many ways to get gold in normal mode. Though there are two bosses there that you probably should stay away from, Malic is a one hitter for one thing.
Edit: Aren't you bored of wyrmshot by now? Maybe start with something else, like melee necromancer?
The gold in HC isn't a problem after the first couple Acts, and even less so in NM. You don't lose gold to deaths or reviving mercs in HC, as the Median mercs are tanks and don't die very often,) but also the amount of rare items that drop in Act 4+ sell for enough. And it's not even worth looking at rare items - the Honorifics and tierred uniques are significantly greater than any rare that dropped, except amulets, which Mitsuki had one with ~+80 life and mana.
I'm not currently using [unnamed mod] for shared stash, but don't know if I would feel right anyway - once they're dead, so are their items. It would make the early game quicker, but to me, it would be like looting a dead character, and I'd feel tainted by it.
The Shamans have a couple of nasty attacks - their Corpse explosion, and they fire a ball of exploding needles. I'm not sure what exactly got Mitsuki, as she died so quickly. Simply, she had too much surrounding her, and had no cover or hit and run ability. Normally, those wolf riders wouldn't even get close, so they aren't really a danger. The danger came when Mitsuki and I got sloppy and tried rushing a bit too much.
As to being bored of Wyrmshot... Not really, as I've only really made two serious Wyrmshot Amazons: I made Mitsuki, a SC Amazon (who I don't enjoy because she can die to whatever she wants, but is great for exploring new areas/Challenge quests,) and Kana, the new Bowazon. I enjoy the challenge and risk, and pushing it that little bit further, so having a second attempt at the same build is interesting to me - my first goal is to beat Normal, which given Mitsuki and the SC Amazon's run, won't be difficult.
Mitsuki was level 55 when she was slain. I do like the speed of Median XL. It actually doesn't take too long to get through areas compared with the original D2 - and levelling is very easy and fast once you get some equipment and skills up. Kana is following a more streamlined path, and pushing into new Acts and areas a lot quicker, hunting for items less and going more for key targets - upgrading those tierred uniques. Expect an update on her in a couple days after I get back home.
But after Kana, I might look up a Totemancer. I don't find SC that enjoyable due to the lack of risk, however, a good SC MP group exploring together would be quite enjoyable. It'd also give me the ability to go into mid-late NM/Hell, attempt some Ubers properly, and see more of the end game Sacreds, items and upgrades.
Ok, I started a hardcore character myself. I made a video about it here ( up to blood moor completion ).. Unfortunately the audio in the first part was greatly corrupted so I had to mute it, in the second half the audio works.
Kana has surpassed Mitsuki, and defeated Baal. He wasn't nearly as dangerous as what I was told. Simple - avoid the monsters that spawn the shattering globes, and you're safe. Even if you walk through one and get cursed, you still have to be hit to die.
Terror difficulty has added a few extra items and challenges. Oh, the sudden music was quite eerie - I wish Laz gave you a bit more warning, as it would be entirely possible to charge straight into them with speed... Insta-death awaits any who startle these witches. She also came across this pretty nice Unique Mystic Orb. Definitely one with some good uses!
I assume this Evil Eye will be used as a future recipe or challenge item, but seeing it was quite an interesting find. Unfortunately, she then proceded to find three or four more of them, so they aren't exactly uncommon.
Next up for Kana will be the Ennead Challenge, and moving on to Act 2 Nightmare (Terror.)
Good luck with the Sorceress. Play around with the volumes and microphone settings, or put some 'Hell Unleashed' or other dark music over top. The last half was definitely drowned out by the in-game volume (and the echo is there - is your microphone recording the microphone input, and also the output from the computer itself?)
Wow.. nice progress.
Did you really fool around with witches in hardcore. That is so not a good idea.
If at all you want to do it ( like the countess quest or witch queen challenge ), better use lolsummons. Though honestly I just wouldn't go there.
Good luck with the ennead challenge. Remember, just take out the two totems on the right hand side and then kill the right hand side corner necromancer. The other two are too well protected to bother with. They also cast a spell that prevents you from healing via potions ( void archons in A4 and black cats in A2 also have this ability ).
@pharphis - Yes, Kana is the replacement for Mitsuki - same build, same ideas, stronger character, better strategy and faster progress.
Yeah, had some fun with the witches, using Fire elementals. I ran into one, and went the opposite direction, just to run into another one. You simply can't avoid them! I know enough about them to avoid them. Act 1 Terror was completed, but without doing the Countess, so we'll see. The music/sound of the Witches should come up sooner, before they come onto screen.
