Humble brags from Week 1 of my would-be-UT99er:
I played my new Lightning Sorceress straight through Normal and Nightmare without much rerunning. I didn't find anything interesting in Normal. In Nightmare I scored a four socket Partizan off a rack in the Forgotten Tower but was having the darnedest time finding/rolling an acceptable four socket sword. It was therefore very exciting when this dropped in the Dry Hills:
Haha! My favorite staff ...
Razorswitch
Jo Staff
Two Hand Damage: 6 - 21
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0x303bf933
Item Level: 44
Version: Resurrected
+1 to All Skills
+30% Faster Cast Rate
+80 to Life
+175 to Mana
All Resistances +50
Magic Damage Reduced by 15
Attacker Takes Damage of 15
Favorite, but almost never used. Spirit/Ancients Pledge gets you pretty much the same thing and is much easier to acquire. But this time around I was having trouble finding a base for the sword so the Razorswitch was most welcome! It immediately replaced a Rhyme and Necro wand (that was providing ~80 mana, and nothing else) that you can see me holding in the screenshot. I used the Razorswitch for the rest of NM and didn't actually even find a four socket Broad Sword until the WSK. After defeating NM Baal I decided I'd retire my trusty staff in favor of the aforementioned Spirit/Ancients Pledge combo (I decided I needed the extra plus skill more than the extra life and mana).
I then decided I'd do some rerunning. My Lighting Sorceress seemed pretty ready for Hell, but the merc needed some help. Just like the four socket sword, I'd been having the darnedest time finding/gambling a helm with life leech. Oh, and his armor was ... well, embarassing. After some consideration I settled on NM Andariel as the target. She's pretty weak, you can get away with less mf due to her perpetual quest dropping, and there's that Hail Mary chance of her dropping a SoJ
.
First I found a nice charm:
Shimmering Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0x97e1599c
Item Level: 43 <-- Let's hear it for collateral damage drops!
Version: Resurrected
All Resistances +15
And a few runs later, I found another:
Shimmering Small Charm of Dexterity
Small Charm
Required Level: 25
Fingerprint: 0x9655ba5c
Item Level: 49
Version: Resurrected
+2 to Dexterity
All Resistances +5
Wow! It's perfect resistance roll day at Andariel's!
Actually, it turned out to be a couple of days of perfect resistance rolls:
Skin of the Vipermagi
Serpentskin Armor
Defense: 279
Durability: 22 of 24
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0xc456b034
Item Level: 49
Version: Resurrected
+1 to All Skills
+30% Faster Cast Rate
+120% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +35
Magic Damage Reduced by 9
Woohoo! Let the good times roll! I haven't settled on what I want my endgame setup to be ... but a 35 Viper was one consideration. Neat, that I found one so soon!
And speaking of soon:
The Stone of Jordan
Ring
Required Level: 29
Fingerprint: 0x71a45922
Item Level: 49
Version: Resurrected
+1 to All Skills
Adds 1 - 12 Lightning Damage
+20 to Mana
Increase Maximum Mana 25%
I'm not really sure I deserve this. I mean, I was running NM Andariel in the hopes of finding it ... but still, ... to get it so early. This was only my eighth unique ring, all from NM Andariel. So, I now have: four Nagels, three Manalds, ... and one SoJ
. Cool. I think I'll be wanting at least one more SoJ ... one to use, and one to turn into an Annihilus ... So, I guess the question becomes, should I take my winnings and move on? Or should I stick around and see just how far my luck can go!
Either way, it was a pretty great Week 1 for my would-be-UT99er!