- May 12, 2007
- 2,489
- 82
- 18
Alright, let’s address the elephant in the room: yes, I have said in the past that I hate Paladins. Yes, I did say I would only make another Paladin if I came up with an interesting/unique idea. And, yes, a Frost Zealot counts as neither.
However, if a person were to decide to make a sept centered around cookie-cutter builds completing the game with items of a specific subset of rarity (and especially if said person were to define said subset as “items easily* obtainable from Nightmare Mephisto”) you’d have something interesting. Or maybe the opposite of that. Either way, the result would be a person needing to build a Paladin and, if that person were, say, to find Paladins abhorrent, they might want to get the suffering out of the way early. They might also, upon finishing said character, write up a patriarch thread complete with an awkward third person introduction, likely because hundreds of hours of Ancient Tunnels running have turned their brains into a puddly goo.
*:
[highlight]The Character[/highlight]:
I’ll point out now that I’m planning on timing these characters. Not as a race or because I want to try and get done as quickly as can be done, but because I want to make sure I’m not just making junk builds and grinding them through. I’ll play them with the same race through when I feel like it, dally when I don’t style I always use, but this just keeps me from being able to say a char did alright when he actually took 40 hours to finish or something. Also just interesting for me, as I can then make more typical characters down the line and compare. This particular fellow completed the game in 26 hours, 7 minutes and 45 seconds.
[highlight]Skills[/highlight]:
Sacrifice, Zeal, Holy Freeze and Resist Cold: 20
Holy Shield: 1 (5)
Redemption, Salvation, Sanctuary and required skills: 1
I like having my builds finish earlier (I like to shoot for 80) but I didn’t mind the extra utility spells (I expected Redemption to be iffy, but I remember at least five instances where I was glad to have it so that makes it worthwhile) or the extra levels.
[highlight]Items[/highlight]:
Charms:
Kyoko, Level 84 Fire Rogue
[highlight]Planning[/highlight]:
Needless to say I put a lot of thought into what I wanted this guy to wear. My original plan was full Iratha’s, Twitchthroe, Rhyme in a paladin shield, Fleshrender, Goblin Toe, Cathan’s Seal and Manald Heal complete with a Harmony wielding Rogue. Wanted a Rogue because it was quite evident that setup would lack AR badly and Inner Sight is kinda good. I ran that gear through Normal (as it became available) and into Nightmare, but it became clear the AR just wasn’t going to be enough, so I tried to switch over to my backup plan (which is actually his current kit) but I was short the Stealskull and Moser’s. So from very early into Nightmare until I set him aside during Hell Countess runs he wore Guillaume’s Face, Sigon’s Gage, Sigon’s Wrap, Rhyme in a 27% res all pally shield and Manald Heal (instead of Raven Frost.) Set him aside somewhere around the middle of June, picked him back up after the MFO, in which I found the Stealskull and the Moser’s he finished the game using. Switched the rogue over from Harmony when I remembered I had a Witchwild, as Harmony was less synergistic with both the build and the theme.
If anyone’s interested, the early twinking gear looked like this:
[highlight]Playthrough[/highlight]:
Nothing particularly interesting early on; p8 up til Hell. Leveled up to 45 at normal Pindle, then to 51 on Baal before going into NM. Leveled up to 72 on NM Pindle. NM Ancients were: ES Whirler, Stone Skin other two. Took all my reds, but weren’t especially bad. NM Keep level 2 was gloams, beetles and flayers, creating a few dicey moments with my propensity to charge through areas blindly, especially when I found myself surrounded by beetles and flayers in the middle of a 4-arm hallway with gloams on each arm. Moved on to Hell at level 74.
Quested through to the Countess’ tower (which was kindly enough directly beside the waypoint) then stopped to do leveling runs. Took about 9 hours to level up to 83. With the Guillaume’s/Rhyme setup I was doing p3 countess runs, but if I’m honest even they were overzealous, once I switched into the final gear, it was p1 all the way (well, I tried p2 once, but having to use basically a full belt on a PI/LE goat pack backed by an archer bosspack told me all I needed to know about that.)
Most of Act I was spent leveling in the Countess’s tower; not much of note past that. I ventured into the Pits twice around level 80, but once I found myself out of potions while surrounded by two rather innocuously modded rogue bosspacks I decided to stick to the countess runs. Andy went down easily, dropping an essence and garbage.
Act II was, as expected, rough. There was a bosspack of ghosts with Might around the Summoner, so I tossed up a TP while they went after the merc, trying to kill the summoner and duck into the portal before they could get to me, but a goatman on the stairs stopped that plan. The ghosts hit too hard for reds - the Summoner’s Frost Novas didn’t help - and it didn’t take long for them to burn through all my purples. Resed the merc after I died, darted into the TP and started running, eventually feeding the merc to the ghosts while I circled around, rescued my corpse and finished off the Summoner. Best Friend Simulator 2014; new top score! Charged through the majority of the Act, except for Tal’s tomb, where I just ran around with Sanctuary up, hoping to not get caught. Duriel was no trouble.
Act III jungle layout was good: Spider Cavern in the first offshoot, waypoint and entrance to Flayer Jungle area with Gidbinn + Dungeon in the next offshoot. Had to dance around Stormtree’s (ES/LE/CE) pack, but they went down eventually. Lucked out in the Sewers as well, finding the way down rather quickly. Lured the Council out in waves, Toorc and some of his buddies coming first and forcing a resupply retreat, but on the whole they weren’t too worrisome. An Amp/ES pack of Blunderbore just inside Durance level 1 required some more hit and run tactics. Durance 2 was absolutely jam-packed with dolls, so I did what any noble slayer of evil kitted for battling demons in their lairs would do: I stuck a sign on my chest that said “plis to not be disturbed. Kthxbye” (read: turned on Sanctuary) and ran like a thoroughbred on race day. Meph was the easiest opponent on his level by an order of magnitude (Stone Skin + LE Blood Lord pack in the same room as a Stone Skin/CE Council member was good times.)
River of Flame spawned Finger Mages, Grotesques, and Sand Maggots which was fun*. Forge was a Lum, but both the perfect and one of the flawless gems were amethysts, so I’m happy with the result. Hephasto was Holy Freeze/Amp. Also a puppy. Apparently I kill puppies, at least when they get in the way of me saving the world from a Prime Evil. Consider yourself warned, diminutive dachshunds. Chaos Sanctuary took 50 minutes, including a death and reload to Infector of Souls’ pack. Also died on the next time, but had the forethought to put down a TP and was able to run back in from the waypoint, lead enough of them away, then run pack to the waypoint, use the TP and take down Infector and two of his buddies (still took a bunch of potions, apparently ES/CE Infector is a big deal ... who knew?). Rest of the seal bosses were no worries; Diablo was nice enough to spam lightning hose instead of actually dealing damage.
*:
Bloody Foothills had imps and wasps. Frozen River had yetis, witches and lancers. Ancients rolled with nothing dangerous, which was good because I hadn’t grabbed a waypoint since Crystalline Passage. WSK1 had witches, vampires, and charging undead. WSK2 was straight up act 2: snakes, bats and beetles. WSK3 had imps, skeleton mages and flayers. Throne had Pit Lords, gloams and frenzytaurs. Waves 4 and 5 required splitting up, but fell quickly and quietly from that point. Baal provided neither challenge nor reward.
Finds:
-Forges: Hel/Lum
-String of Ears (14/14/7) from NM Summoner
-Ko Rune in NM tomb.
-Emerald (11) SC of Vita (17) in NM Act V
-2 Passive and Magic, 20% IAS, 3% Mana leech, 17% Fire Res gloves from NM Baal
-Ambergris (21%) Jewel of Fervor
-Blackhorn’s Face in Hell Tower
-2 Pul runes from Countess runs
-Lem rune from Countess runs
Deaths:
You bet your spleen, Norma Jean. (what?) I stopped actively counting after number 7, but probably 15-20, mostly during running either NM Pindle or Hell Countess. He was really fragile with that Guillaume's Face setup; I only remember 4 deaths in the current gear.
[highlight]Q&A[/highlight]:
So about those Paladins?
-Still hate ‘em.
Why’d you name him “The_Snowman?”
-Because “Frosty” would’ve been tacky.
Anyone you’d like to thank?
-Nagisafurukawa for the Raven Frost and the Steel GC’s.
Thanks also to you for reading. Remember that while the game’s worst class may be rather pallid, he at least creates quite a din.
However, if a person were to decide to make a sept centered around cookie-cutter builds completing the game with items of a specific subset of rarity (and especially if said person were to define said subset as “items easily* obtainable from Nightmare Mephisto”) you’d have something interesting. Or maybe the opposite of that. Either way, the result would be a person needing to build a Paladin and, if that person were, say, to find Paladins abhorrent, they might want to get the suffering out of the way early. They might also, upon finishing said character, write up a patriarch thread complete with an awkward third person introduction, likely because hundreds of hours of Ancient Tunnels running have turned their brains into a puddly goo.
*:
I’ve arbitrarily set “easily” at roughly 1:3000 odds from NM Meph with 0MF, which works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 1:1000 with 250MF. Low-end runewords in low-end bases are also, equally arbitrarily, allowed. Exceptions, also, will be allowed on an “I feel like it” basis.
[highlight]The Character[/highlight]:
Code:
Name: The_Snowman
Class: Paladin
Level: 84
Strength: 137 (149)
Dexterity: 83 (125)
Vitality: 280
Fire resist: 80 (75)
Cold resist: 29
Lightning resist: 88 (75)
Poison resist: 31
AR: 7095
Block: 54 (75% with Holy Shield)
FHR: 30 (6 frames)
IAS: 70 (5/5/5/5/10 FPA)
Zeal damage with HF: 1194-1516
Zeal damage with Might: 468-787I’ll point out now that I’m planning on timing these characters. Not as a race or because I want to try and get done as quickly as can be done, but because I want to make sure I’m not just making junk builds and grinding them through. I’ll play them with the same race through when I feel like it, dally when I don’t style I always use, but this just keeps me from being able to say a char did alright when he actually took 40 hours to finish or something. Also just interesting for me, as I can then make more typical characters down the line and compare. This particular fellow completed the game in 26 hours, 7 minutes and 45 seconds.
[highlight]Skills[/highlight]:
Sacrifice, Zeal, Holy Freeze and Resist Cold: 20
Holy Shield: 1 (5)
Redemption, Salvation, Sanctuary and required skills: 1
I like having my builds finish earlier (I like to shoot for 80) but I didn’t mind the extra utility spells (I expected Redemption to be iffy, but I remember at least five instances where I was glad to have it so that makes it worthwhile) or the extra levels.
[highlight]Items[/highlight]:
Code:
Fleshrender
Barbed Club
One Hand Damage: 65 - 108
Durability: 47 of 56
Required Level: 38
Required Strength: 30
Fingerprint: 0xb64ffd93
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only)
+1 to Druid Skill Levels
+20% Increased Attack Speed
132% Enhanced Damage
Adds 35 - 50 Damage
+150% Damage to Undead
20% Chance of Crushing Blow
20% Deadly Strike
25% Chance of Open Wounds
Prevent Monster Heal
+20 Maximum Durability
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Moser's Blessed Circle
Round Shield
Defense: 178
Chance to Block: 37
Durability: 64 of 64
Required Level: 31
Required Strength: 53
Fingerprint: 0x40a7b75f
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Block Rate
25% Increased Chance of Blocking
+219% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +63
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Perfect Diamond
Socketed: Perfect Diamond
Stealskull
Casque
Defense: 222
Durability: 23 of 24
Required Level: 35
Required Strength: 59
Fingerprint: 0x32df5fe2
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Increased Attack Speed
+10% Faster Hit Recovery
5% Mana stolen per hit
5% Life stolen per hit
+205% Enhanced Defense
46% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Angelic Wings
Amulet
Required Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x4d255d0e
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
20% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+3 to Light Radius
Set (2 items): +75 to Life
Set (3 items): +1 to All Skills
(2 items): +10 to Dexterity
Twitchthroe
Studded Leather
Defense: 59
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Level: 21
Required Strength: 27
Fingerprint: 0x4bda7d39
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
25% Increased Chance of Blocking
+25 Defense
+10 to Strength
+10 to Dexterity
Lightning Resist +30%
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Ort Rune
Angelic Halo
Ring
Required Level: 12
Fingerprint: 0x612d350
Item Level: 61
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life
Replenish Life +6
Set (2 items): +1008 to Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
Set (3 items): 50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
(2 items): +10 to Dexterity
Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Fingerprint: 0x3f4393f1
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+221 to Attack Rating
Adds 15 - 45 Cold Damage Over 4 Secs (100 Frames)
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
Cold Absorb 20%
Cannot Be Frozen
String of Ears
Demonhide Sash
Defense: 108
Durability: 22 of 22
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x3b50ac24
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
8% Life stolen per hit
+167% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 14%
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
+10 Maximum Durability
Aldur's Advance
Battle Boots
Defense: 42
Durability: 17 of 18
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0xab46f929
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Indestructible
+40% Faster Run/Walk
+50 to Life
+180 Maximum Stamina
Heal Stamina Plus 32%
Fire Resist +45%
10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Set (2 items): +15 to Dexterity
Set (3 items): +15 to Dexterity
Set (4 items): +15 to Dexterity
Magnus' Skin
Sharkskin Gloves
Defense: 60
Durability: 13 of 14
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x259deb99
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+100 to Attack Rating
+50% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +15%
+3 to Light Radius
Spirit (on switch)
Broad Sword
TalThulOrtAmn
One Hand Damage: 7 - 14
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 48
Fingerprint: 0xb2c78034
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+32% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
7% Life stolen per hit
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+93 to Mana
+8 Magic Absorb
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune
Spirit (on switch)
Heraldic Shield
TalThulOrtAmn
Defense: 26
Chance to Block: 0
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 40
Fingerprint: 0x94f61e8a
Item Level: 37
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+34% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+110 to Mana
Cold Resist +35%
All Resistances +23
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+5 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
4 Sockets (4 used)
Socketed: Tal Rune
Socketed: Thul Rune
Socketed: Ort Rune
Socketed: Amn RuneCharms:
Code:
Steel Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0xa5a0b93d
Item Level: 83
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+131 to Attack Rating
Steel Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 35
Fingerprint: 0xda46d9a1
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+115 to Attack Rating
Fine Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 21
Fingerprint: 0xbc2f9e81
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Maximum Damage
+20 to Attack Rating
Emerald Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0xe3f7eeae
Item Level: 63
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+17 to Life
Poison Resist +11%
Shimmering Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0x1acc77bc
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +13
Steel Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x21d9dc33
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+34 to Attack Rating
+2 to Strength
Steel Small Charm of Blight
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xd68ec7bb
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+34 to Attack Rating
Adds 6 Poison Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Iron Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xf420ad78
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+24 to Attack Rating
+14 to Life
Amber Grand Charm of Sustenance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 37
Fingerprint: 0xf526be2e
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+27 to Life
Lightning Resist +28%
Steel Small Charm
Small Charm
Required Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0xec8827bd
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+29 to Attack Rating
Fine Small Charm of Anthrax
Small Charm
Required Level: 36
Fingerprint: 0xaa2505a7
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Maximum Damage
+18 to Attack Rating
Adds 50 Poison Damage Over 6 Secs (150 Frames)
Iron Small Charm of Dexterity
Small Charm
Required Level: 31
Fingerprint: 0xb894040c
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+21 to Attack Rating
+2 to Dexterity
Cobalt Small Charm of Vita
Small Charm
Required Level: 39
Fingerprint: 0x2c4a747e
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20 to Life
Cold Resist +9%
Shimmering Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xd229a880
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +14
Amber Small Charm of Shock
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xbb415646
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 1 - 3 Lightning Damage
Lightning Resist +10%Kyoko, Level 84 Fire Rogue
Code:
Duriel's Shell
Cuirass
Defense: 661
Durability: 38 of 150
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0x5d039965
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+174% Enhanced Defense
+105 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+15 to Strength
+84 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +20
Cannot Be Frozen
+100 Maximum Durability
Wormskull
Bone Helm
Defense: 34
Durability: 29 of 40
Required Level: 21
Required Strength: 25
Fingerprint: 0xf604ee0b
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to Necromancer Skill Levels
Adds 80 Poison Damage Over 8 Secs (200 Frames)
5% Life stolen per hit
+10 to Mana
Poison Resist +25%
Witchwild String
Short Siege Bow
Two Hand Damage: 33 - 76
Durability: 33 of 40
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 65
Required Dexterity: 80
Fingerprint: 0xc050a74f
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
2% Chance to cast level 5 Amplify Damage on striking
+40% Increased Attack Speed
Fires Magic Arrows
154% Enhanced Damage
84% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
All Resistances +40
2 Sockets (2 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Shael Rune[highlight]Planning[/highlight]:
Needless to say I put a lot of thought into what I wanted this guy to wear. My original plan was full Iratha’s, Twitchthroe, Rhyme in a paladin shield, Fleshrender, Goblin Toe, Cathan’s Seal and Manald Heal complete with a Harmony wielding Rogue. Wanted a Rogue because it was quite evident that setup would lack AR badly and Inner Sight is kinda good. I ran that gear through Normal (as it became available) and into Nightmare, but it became clear the AR just wasn’t going to be enough, so I tried to switch over to my backup plan (which is actually his current kit) but I was short the Stealskull and Moser’s. So from very early into Nightmare until I set him aside during Hell Countess runs he wore Guillaume’s Face, Sigon’s Gage, Sigon’s Wrap, Rhyme in a 27% res all pally shield and Manald Heal (instead of Raven Frost.) Set him aside somewhere around the middle of June, picked him back up after the MFO, in which I found the Stealskull and the Moser’s he finished the game using. Switched the rogue over from Harmony when I remembered I had a Witchwild, as Harmony was less synergistic with both the build and the theme.
If anyone’s interested, the early twinking gear looked like this:
Arctic Belt + Gloves + Berserker hat + armor + axe + Hsarus shield and boots . Full Sigon’s when available. Isenheart’s sword into General Tan Do Li Ga into Bloodletter into Coldsteel Eye into the Fleshrender. Steelclash into grim rhyme into gilded rhyme. Put on Twitchthroe and full Iratha’s when they became available. Goblin Toe at 17. Swapped Goblin Toe out for Nat’s boots when I switched to the Guillaume’s setup, then swapped out Nat’s boots for Aldur’s in order to rework my charm space for more AR.
[highlight]Playthrough[/highlight]:
Nothing particularly interesting early on; p8 up til Hell. Leveled up to 45 at normal Pindle, then to 51 on Baal before going into NM. Leveled up to 72 on NM Pindle. NM Ancients were: ES Whirler, Stone Skin other two. Took all my reds, but weren’t especially bad. NM Keep level 2 was gloams, beetles and flayers, creating a few dicey moments with my propensity to charge through areas blindly, especially when I found myself surrounded by beetles and flayers in the middle of a 4-arm hallway with gloams on each arm. Moved on to Hell at level 74.
Quested through to the Countess’ tower (which was kindly enough directly beside the waypoint) then stopped to do leveling runs. Took about 9 hours to level up to 83. With the Guillaume’s/Rhyme setup I was doing p3 countess runs, but if I’m honest even they were overzealous, once I switched into the final gear, it was p1 all the way (well, I tried p2 once, but having to use basically a full belt on a PI/LE goat pack backed by an archer bosspack told me all I needed to know about that.)
Most of Act I was spent leveling in the Countess’s tower; not much of note past that. I ventured into the Pits twice around level 80, but once I found myself out of potions while surrounded by two rather innocuously modded rogue bosspacks I decided to stick to the countess runs. Andy went down easily, dropping an essence and garbage.
Act II was, as expected, rough. There was a bosspack of ghosts with Might around the Summoner, so I tossed up a TP while they went after the merc, trying to kill the summoner and duck into the portal before they could get to me, but a goatman on the stairs stopped that plan. The ghosts hit too hard for reds - the Summoner’s Frost Novas didn’t help - and it didn’t take long for them to burn through all my purples. Resed the merc after I died, darted into the TP and started running, eventually feeding the merc to the ghosts while I circled around, rescued my corpse and finished off the Summoner. Best Friend Simulator 2014; new top score! Charged through the majority of the Act, except for Tal’s tomb, where I just ran around with Sanctuary up, hoping to not get caught. Duriel was no trouble.
Act III jungle layout was good: Spider Cavern in the first offshoot, waypoint and entrance to Flayer Jungle area with Gidbinn + Dungeon in the next offshoot. Had to dance around Stormtree’s (ES/LE/CE) pack, but they went down eventually. Lucked out in the Sewers as well, finding the way down rather quickly. Lured the Council out in waves, Toorc and some of his buddies coming first and forcing a resupply retreat, but on the whole they weren’t too worrisome. An Amp/ES pack of Blunderbore just inside Durance level 1 required some more hit and run tactics. Durance 2 was absolutely jam-packed with dolls, so I did what any noble slayer of evil kitted for battling demons in their lairs would do: I stuck a sign on my chest that said “plis to not be disturbed. Kthxbye” (read: turned on Sanctuary) and ran like a thoroughbred on race day. Meph was the easiest opponent on his level by an order of magnitude (Stone Skin + LE Blood Lord pack in the same room as a Stone Skin/CE Council member was good times.)
River of Flame spawned Finger Mages, Grotesques, and Sand Maggots which was fun*. Forge was a Lum, but both the perfect and one of the flawless gems were amethysts, so I’m happy with the result. Hephasto was Holy Freeze/Amp. Also a puppy. Apparently I kill puppies, at least when they get in the way of me saving the world from a Prime Evil. Consider yourself warned, diminutive dachshunds. Chaos Sanctuary took 50 minutes, including a death and reload to Infector of Souls’ pack. Also died on the next time, but had the forethought to put down a TP and was able to run back in from the waypoint, lead enough of them away, then run pack to the waypoint, use the TP and take down Infector and two of his buddies (still took a bunch of potions, apparently ES/CE Infector is a big deal ... who knew?). Rest of the seal bosses were no worries; Diablo was nice enough to spam lightning hose instead of actually dealing damage.
*:
Bloody Foothills had imps and wasps. Frozen River had yetis, witches and lancers. Ancients rolled with nothing dangerous, which was good because I hadn’t grabbed a waypoint since Crystalline Passage. WSK1 had witches, vampires, and charging undead. WSK2 was straight up act 2: snakes, bats and beetles. WSK3 had imps, skeleton mages and flayers. Throne had Pit Lords, gloams and frenzytaurs. Waves 4 and 5 required splitting up, but fell quickly and quietly from that point. Baal provided neither challenge nor reward.
Finds:
-Forges: Hel/Lum
-String of Ears (14/14/7) from NM Summoner
-Ko Rune in NM tomb.
-Emerald (11) SC of Vita (17) in NM Act V
-2 Passive and Magic, 20% IAS, 3% Mana leech, 17% Fire Res gloves from NM Baal
-Ambergris (21%) Jewel of Fervor
-Blackhorn’s Face in Hell Tower
-2 Pul runes from Countess runs
-Lem rune from Countess runs
Deaths:
You bet your spleen, Norma Jean. (what?) I stopped actively counting after number 7, but probably 15-20, mostly during running either NM Pindle or Hell Countess. He was really fragile with that Guillaume's Face setup; I only remember 4 deaths in the current gear.
[highlight]Q&A[/highlight]:
So about those Paladins?
-Still hate ‘em.
Why’d you name him “The_Snowman?”
-Because “Frosty” would’ve been tacky.
Anyone you’d like to thank?
-Nagisafurukawa for the Raven Frost and the Steel GC’s.
Thanks also to you for reading. Remember that while the game’s worst class may be rather pallid, he at least creates quite a din.
Last edited:
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