Great progress jiansonz, you've now passed me. I guess I'll have to fire up D2 again in the coming weeks to try to Guardian my own Random Assassin. She's in the Outer Cloister of Hell, described a few pages back.I've experimented a bit with Nadir, putting it on for potential stair traps. It's not a bad idea actually, although I haven't gotten in any dangerous situations yet where I actually needed it.
Random Tournament 2013
- Thread starter Vang
- Start date
An update on my progress:
I progressed from Jail 1 to defeat Hell Andariel, with no problems at all. I hadn't played in several months so I dropped down to /p1 (I'd cleared all of Hell up to this point on /p3). That made the going much easier.
Had one bizarre moment in Jail 3, there was a room with no doors, but with a Chest inside. It also had 2 Champion Ghosts, which I wasn't able to capture on the screenshot, but sometimes randomly appeared if I approached the room from the right angle.
So far I've definitely noticed that some monsters only target me, no matter how many times I put the merc in front of them or dance around them. So far the list includes: NM Frenzytaur, NM Abomination, Hell Ghoul, Hell Arach, Hell Andariel. In the past people have hypothesized that act bosses, at least, target the player doing the most damage. That's definitely not me, given that my main source of damage is 1-synergy Shock Web/1-synergy Wake of Inferno. I'm hoping that the number of monsters on this list doesn't increase that much; Frenzytaurs were actually made easier in NM because I could park them on one side of a bridge with my merc and then watch them struggle to reach me as he poked them to death. NM Abominations were a disaster (no way to park Frozenstein effectively); the Hell creatures, like all Act 1 creatures (save Dark Archers), were a joke thus far. Because Andariel only targeted me she was trivial to bring down - just ran in circles recasting Wake of Inferno.
A question for those better at shopping than me: qlvl of a War Pike is 85, so that means I have to be level 80 to shop one from Hell Fara, right? I guess I'll have to make do with my Merciless Lance on the merc for a while longer...
Conquerer Tuche, Hell Sewers, Level 78
I progressed from Jail 1 to defeat Hell Andariel, with no problems at all. I hadn't played in several months so I dropped down to /p1 (I'd cleared all of Hell up to this point on /p3). That made the going much easier.
Had one bizarre moment in Jail 3, there was a room with no doors, but with a Chest inside. It also had 2 Champion Ghosts, which I wasn't able to capture on the screenshot, but sometimes randomly appeared if I approached the room from the right angle.
So far I've definitely noticed that some monsters only target me, no matter how many times I put the merc in front of them or dance around them. So far the list includes: NM Frenzytaur, NM Abomination, Hell Ghoul, Hell Arach, Hell Andariel. In the past people have hypothesized that act bosses, at least, target the player doing the most damage. That's definitely not me, given that my main source of damage is 1-synergy Shock Web/1-synergy Wake of Inferno. I'm hoping that the number of monsters on this list doesn't increase that much; Frenzytaurs were actually made easier in NM because I could park them on one side of a bridge with my merc and then watch them struggle to reach me as he poked them to death. NM Abominations were a disaster (no way to park Frozenstein effectively); the Hell creatures, like all Act 1 creatures (save Dark Archers), were a joke thus far. Because Andariel only targeted me she was trivial to bring down - just ran in circles recasting Wake of Inferno.
A question for those better at shopping than me: qlvl of a War Pike is 85, so that means I have to be level 80 to shop one from Hell Fara, right? I guess I'll have to make do with my Merciless Lance on the merc for a while longer...
Conquerer Tuche, Hell Sewers, Level 78
These rooms in the Jail have secret doors. The door is a wall and usually between two torches..
Here's a random screenshot off google.
Edit: I even found a video on this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRCq1mJw_cA
jiansonz
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Yep, there is usually at least one of those secret rooms per difficulty, sometimes 4-5 of them. endlesscircuit's screenie shows the small variant; there is also a bigger type that is a square room (detached from other walls so you can walk around it) with 6-7 chests (one or two may be a rack instead) in them.
Correct.
jiansonz
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The success story continues. It's pretty nice having a character that is mostly played as a caster but still has the sturdiness of a meleer, and with decent crowd control (even without CoS). Death Sentry is pretty darn powerful in some situations. This screenie is a testament to that. Note how (relatively) clean the ground is. After this fight, you are usually looking at the bloodiest and most messy battlefield in the game. Not for Erica. They died so jaw-droppingly fast! Made me wonder if I missed out on some nice drops, seeing as Coldworm was probably not done with the breeding yet.
Speaking of nice drops, here is a grailer I found in Lost City that I plan to use in the late game. Easily beats the plain +40 life Mammoth ring I had saved for that purpose.
Another great find: a 5-socket Thresher! Not ethereal, but you can't have everything. Actually, I am even thinking of using it myself. Lack a lot of strength for that, though, and I am not going to use my third respec to change my stats, because I do not like that feature. Maybe if I can replace my Coral/Whale armor with a Lionheart. That would save me 25 points. But I need another Fal for that and I only have one if I cube it from the three Lum and two Ko I have. I checked out my rune situation for Obedience. Finding a Fal, Ko or Lum is enough now, but not Io or lower.
For the Fangskin area, I unsummed my Shadow before going in, because I did not want her to draw unwanted attention (she can see the monsters further away than Razan can). One of Fangy's minions approached almost right away and bounced back ('boss leash' style). Not sure how I wanted to proceed now, but I summoned the Shadow and had her cast Fade. Now two more minions came to us and I hoped that Shadow and merc would form a good front and fight them. And here comes Fangy! Getting bounced around here in the starting hallway with 4 extra fast LE snakes with who-knows-what two other enhancements wasn't my idea of fun so I took a gamble and blind-teleported to the altar platform:
Jackpot. Now I could fight them when and where I wanted without any stress. That second boss down to the left was CELE something.
Palace and Arcane Sanctuary were quite easy. Well, apart from a Cursed Extra Fast LE Specter boss that I had a very hard time keeping my companions alive against, and to damage faster than it healed (very high lightning resistance). I eventually lucked out with a formation where Razan could hit the boss (applying poison) but it could not hit him (or even see him!) because a pillar was in the way (this was in the 'crazy stairs' quadrant). So I could just throw as many Death Sentries and Fire Blasts as I needed.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 81, Hell Canyon of the Magi next[/Highlight]
Speaking of nice drops, here is a grailer I found in Lost City that I plan to use in the late game. Easily beats the plain +40 life Mammoth ring I had saved for that purpose.
Another great find: a 5-socket Thresher! Not ethereal, but you can't have everything. Actually, I am even thinking of using it myself. Lack a lot of strength for that, though, and I am not going to use my third respec to change my stats, because I do not like that feature. Maybe if I can replace my Coral/Whale armor with a Lionheart. That would save me 25 points. But I need another Fal for that and I only have one if I cube it from the three Lum and two Ko I have. I checked out my rune situation for Obedience. Finding a Fal, Ko or Lum is enough now, but not Io or lower.
For the Fangskin area, I unsummed my Shadow before going in, because I did not want her to draw unwanted attention (she can see the monsters further away than Razan can). One of Fangy's minions approached almost right away and bounced back ('boss leash' style). Not sure how I wanted to proceed now, but I summoned the Shadow and had her cast Fade. Now two more minions came to us and I hoped that Shadow and merc would form a good front and fight them. And here comes Fangy! Getting bounced around here in the starting hallway with 4 extra fast LE snakes with who-knows-what two other enhancements wasn't my idea of fun so I took a gamble and blind-teleported to the altar platform:
Jackpot. Now I could fight them when and where I wanted without any stress. That second boss down to the left was CELE something.
Palace and Arcane Sanctuary were quite easy. Well, apart from a Cursed Extra Fast LE Specter boss that I had a very hard time keeping my companions alive against, and to damage faster than it healed (very high lightning resistance). I eventually lucked out with a formation where Razan could hit the boss (applying poison) but it could not hit him (or even see him!) because a pillar was in the way (this was in the 'crazy stairs' quadrant). So I could just throw as many Death Sentries and Fire Blasts as I needed.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 81, Hell Canyon of the Magi next[/Highlight]
Congrats on that beautiful ring ... I'm looking for one of those myself!
Also congrats on passing my Necro, Paks (from way back).
I would say good luck with the rest of Hell, but maybe luck isn't such a large part of your playing style.
Also congrats on passing my Necro, Paks (from way back).
I would say good luck with the rest of Hell, but maybe luck isn't such a large part of your playing style.
jiansonz
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Canyon of the Magi required two portal parkings to begin with, because of very tough early boss Hell Cat and -Slinger packs plus a large pack of beetles, including Champs.
Only one of the seven tombs had a tricky start, the second one. Mind Blast and Shadows' heroic tanking (and deaths) were needed here. There was another, much more dangerous Gorebelly boss pack behind the nearest door. But I saw the spot of light and did not open that door until much more space was secured.
Duriel was a drag to fight but posed no real danger.
A boss pack of Gloams at the Marsh border surprised me (I did not know Great Marsh was that close!) and they pretty much all hit me and my life got down to about half. They were LE and boss had Holy Shock. That incident was the worst danger the whole playing session. Stormtree was a serious pain, though, spawning with CE and Conviction in addition to his native LE + Extra Fast. Ouch. Many merc resurrestions and Shadow recasts followed...
One of the bosses in Swampy Pit dropped a magical Giant Thresher. That was some really good luck because those are TC 87 weapons and very rare drops. In fact, I do not think Erica has seen any other TC 87 items yet. I knew I would be able to eventually buy one from Halbu but now I could get a head start in the weapons department. Still not getting any closer to Obedience, rune wise.
So it was time for major rerolling now. Burned all my chippies (except two of each type but skulls saved for rune upgrades and normalizing), burned all my mid-sized amethysts, diamonds and half of the emeralds. Muled in the rest of the emeralds and filled up with rubies. On one of the first rolls that game, I had an absolutely amazing roll:
Freaking PERFECT (300%) Cruel,
of Alacrity (20% IAS),
with two sockets!
I checked out the weapon speed calculator. It's already a speedy weapon in the hands of a desert guard. A Shael would make the attack half a frame faster, a second Shael another half a frame. I did not do any calculations but it felt like more speed was not really needed. Razan often fights under protection from the Shadow anyway. So I decided to go for more damage. My 38% Ruby Jewel was a given , then the choice was betwen a 28% Realgar Jewel and my Ohm rune. I mean, with a perfect damage roll, the weapon was certainly worthy of the Ohm, but I refrained from it for two reasons:
1. it may be insulting to some readers, that I would "waste" it like that, for a measly 22%-units higher ED on a weapon I may not even use in the endgame
2. if I keep the Ohm, Call to Arms is actually not an impossible dream. It's unlikely, but far from impossible that I could find an Ist or Mal and get the other from the Hellforge. A single-pass untwinked CtA, that would really be something, eh?
Here is Razan's glorious weapon (I socketed Tal's mask with a flawless amethyst so he could meet the STR requirement):
I almost feel sorry for the Lower Kurast monsters. Almost.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 83, Hell Lower Kurast next[/Highlight]
Only one of the seven tombs had a tricky start, the second one. Mind Blast and Shadows' heroic tanking (and deaths) were needed here. There was another, much more dangerous Gorebelly boss pack behind the nearest door. But I saw the spot of light and did not open that door until much more space was secured.
Duriel was a drag to fight but posed no real danger.
A boss pack of Gloams at the Marsh border surprised me (I did not know Great Marsh was that close!) and they pretty much all hit me and my life got down to about half. They were LE and boss had Holy Shock. That incident was the worst danger the whole playing session. Stormtree was a serious pain, though, spawning with CE and Conviction in addition to his native LE + Extra Fast. Ouch. Many merc resurrestions and Shadow recasts followed...
One of the bosses in Swampy Pit dropped a magical Giant Thresher. That was some really good luck because those are TC 87 weapons and very rare drops. In fact, I do not think Erica has seen any other TC 87 items yet. I knew I would be able to eventually buy one from Halbu but now I could get a head start in the weapons department. Still not getting any closer to Obedience, rune wise.
So it was time for major rerolling now. Burned all my chippies (except two of each type but skulls saved for rune upgrades and normalizing), burned all my mid-sized amethysts, diamonds and half of the emeralds. Muled in the rest of the emeralds and filled up with rubies. On one of the first rolls that game, I had an absolutely amazing roll:
Freaking PERFECT (300%) Cruel,
of Alacrity (20% IAS),
with two sockets!
I checked out the weapon speed calculator. It's already a speedy weapon in the hands of a desert guard. A Shael would make the attack half a frame faster, a second Shael another half a frame. I did not do any calculations but it felt like more speed was not really needed. Razan often fights under protection from the Shadow anyway. So I decided to go for more damage. My 38% Ruby Jewel was a given , then the choice was betwen a 28% Realgar Jewel and my Ohm rune. I mean, with a perfect damage roll, the weapon was certainly worthy of the Ohm, but I refrained from it for two reasons:
1. it may be insulting to some readers, that I would "waste" it like that, for a measly 22%-units higher ED on a weapon I may not even use in the endgame
2. if I keep the Ohm, Call to Arms is actually not an impossible dream. It's unlikely, but far from impossible that I could find an Ist or Mal and get the other from the Hellforge. A single-pass untwinked CtA, that would really be something, eh?
Here is Razan's glorious weapon (I socketed Tal's mask with a flawless amethyst so he could meet the STR requirement):
I almost feel sorry for the Lower Kurast monsters. Almost.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 83, Hell Lower Kurast next[/Highlight]
jiansonz
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Erica survived the temples! First two were unremarkable. For Ruined Temple, I did not draw any of the T-layouts, which means that there is no risk that Sarina's pack can see you early.
Things heated up in the third temple, with arachnid woes aplenty. Stairs trapped by a regular pack, nothing much to worry about, but an ill-placed Death Sentry shot lightning streams further into the temple, and that attracted a Cold Enchanted boss and a few minions, and I soon had a hairball going.
Then, with just one or two down, a Champ and a Possessed joined the fray. The idiot merc insisted on focusing on the Possessed. "These guys have 12x normal HP, leave him for later". Sigh. At this point, I was blocked off from the entrance, so I was quite nervous. I held the line there in the corner, Mind Blasting the most tenacious spiders, while feeding merc potions, recasting Shadow, etc.
Merc killed the one by the entrance, I dropped a bomb that cleared up a little and I retreated to take a breather and potion refill. Wow, that was intense!
Can you tell that I love the temples? Easily some of the best fights in the game.
Fourth temple was Forgotten Temple, the first of the alvl 85 type, those that can have bats/archers/beetles/snakes.
Seriously? That's not nice.
Still, just regular critters. But for some reason, they took freaking forever to kill. I mean, I did write /players 1 after I opened chests in last temple on /p8, didn't I? I am 100% sure I typed /players something. Could I have been so off that I just replaced p8 with p8? Fighting the next beetle pack, I was sure this was the case, because I fought that 5-pack of beetles for minutes without getting any kills (but 3 merc resurrections...). Oh crap.
Well, this is not getting anywhere. Their regeneration was insane, and even with the mighty merc weapon, we scored no kills because the fighting very often made Razan change targets. And I couldn't really help with the damage because, you know, LI beetles. However, I had been smart enough to keep the Insight stick in the stash. Much lower damage, but the poison on it made all the difference in this fight! Amazing.
By now, I of course dreaded nasty bosses that would take forever to kill. Dezrok, you asked about luck earlier. This is one answer, that I got help from my luck now that I had made a stupid mistake. There was only one boss pack in here, LE something bats. While that boss was indeed a bit of a pain, a boss of any the other three monster types would have been worse. Bats are no HP-behemoths, even on /p8. There was a double regular snake pack (so about 8 of them) in the back part of the temple that caused some trouble but nothing major.
For the last two temples, I made sure I got the 'players set to 1' message before entering.
Fifth temple had an early beetle pack, and this time it worked like I had hoped it would in the last temple. Quick kill from merc, corpse goes boom, one more merc poke, new dead beetle, corpse explosion blows the other three dead. Total time to kill those five: less than 4 seconds...
Last temple had regular archers in the first room. They were killed easily. I took a clockwise tour of the temple but ran into a double boss pack of beetles. Both bosses had Stone Skin, making them PI, and at least one was dangerous for my companions. I did a quick retreat (including two teleports) and went the counterclockwise direction instead, so I could save the bosses for later, when we would have more space to work with.
I brought back Insight because this fight required poison hits and a crapload of mana. That Ral rune in Insight adds a little (very little!) fire damage but most damage was done with Erica's not-so-mighty Fire Blasts.
Next session is one of the longest, with that enormous Durance 2 area. That place has a lot of chests, Would it be too much to ask to have one of them spit out the last rune I need for Obedience?
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 84, Hell Travincal next[/Highlight]
Things heated up in the third temple, with arachnid woes aplenty. Stairs trapped by a regular pack, nothing much to worry about, but an ill-placed Death Sentry shot lightning streams further into the temple, and that attracted a Cold Enchanted boss and a few minions, and I soon had a hairball going.
Then, with just one or two down, a Champ and a Possessed joined the fray. The idiot merc insisted on focusing on the Possessed. "These guys have 12x normal HP, leave him for later". Sigh. At this point, I was blocked off from the entrance, so I was quite nervous. I held the line there in the corner, Mind Blasting the most tenacious spiders, while feeding merc potions, recasting Shadow, etc.
Merc killed the one by the entrance, I dropped a bomb that cleared up a little and I retreated to take a breather and potion refill. Wow, that was intense!
Can you tell that I love the temples? Easily some of the best fights in the game.
Fourth temple was Forgotten Temple, the first of the alvl 85 type, those that can have bats/archers/beetles/snakes.
Seriously? That's not nice.
Still, just regular critters. But for some reason, they took freaking forever to kill. I mean, I did write /players 1 after I opened chests in last temple on /p8, didn't I? I am 100% sure I typed /players something. Could I have been so off that I just replaced p8 with p8? Fighting the next beetle pack, I was sure this was the case, because I fought that 5-pack of beetles for minutes without getting any kills (but 3 merc resurrections...). Oh crap.
Well, this is not getting anywhere. Their regeneration was insane, and even with the mighty merc weapon, we scored no kills because the fighting very often made Razan change targets. And I couldn't really help with the damage because, you know, LI beetles. However, I had been smart enough to keep the Insight stick in the stash. Much lower damage, but the poison on it made all the difference in this fight! Amazing.
By now, I of course dreaded nasty bosses that would take forever to kill. Dezrok, you asked about luck earlier. This is one answer, that I got help from my luck now that I had made a stupid mistake. There was only one boss pack in here, LE something bats. While that boss was indeed a bit of a pain, a boss of any the other three monster types would have been worse. Bats are no HP-behemoths, even on /p8. There was a double regular snake pack (so about 8 of them) in the back part of the temple that caused some trouble but nothing major.
For the last two temples, I made sure I got the 'players set to 1' message before entering.
Fifth temple had an early beetle pack, and this time it worked like I had hoped it would in the last temple. Quick kill from merc, corpse goes boom, one more merc poke, new dead beetle, corpse explosion blows the other three dead. Total time to kill those five: less than 4 seconds...
Last temple had regular archers in the first room. They were killed easily. I took a clockwise tour of the temple but ran into a double boss pack of beetles. Both bosses had Stone Skin, making them PI, and at least one was dangerous for my companions. I did a quick retreat (including two teleports) and went the counterclockwise direction instead, so I could save the bosses for later, when we would have more space to work with.
I brought back Insight because this fight required poison hits and a crapload of mana. That Ral rune in Insight adds a little (very little!) fire damage but most damage was done with Erica's not-so-mighty Fire Blasts.
Next session is one of the longest, with that enormous Durance 2 area. That place has a lot of chests, Would it be too much to ask to have one of them spit out the last rune I need for Obedience?
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 84, Hell Travincal next[/Highlight]
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Great Merc Stick! Also nice going in the temples ... gotta love/hate those places
Nice work saving your luck up for when you really need it! It's always such a shock when you realise that your players setting isn't quite what you expected and that's why things are so much harder/easier than you thought. Great job persisting with the full clears.
Nice work saving your luck up for when you really need it! It's always such a shock when you realise that your players setting isn't quite what you expected and that's why things are so much harder/easier than you thought. Great job persisting with the full clears.
jiansonz
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You going to pop all chests on durance 2 at p8?
Or do you normally do that anyway?
No, it's too bothersome to find a full clear route in that place more than once (once is OK, because I have the map to help me), so it will be full time players 3 there. That takes away most of the no-drop risk from chests. The Kurast city areas and temples are the only areas I do /p8 chest popping afterwards. Everywhere else in the game, it's just the super- and sparkly chests I do that with.
jiansonz
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We had trouble with Maulers in the Durance. They disrupt formations, stun Razan and are also lightning immune. I used more Mind Blast than usual there.
I had to be careful with the Death Sentries there. If a corpse of something with a lot more life than a bone fetish explodes, it may be able to kill a bone fetish even if it's at full life, and their bone shattering is dangerous to be close to. More than once, I used Teleport with the main purpose of clearing out traps (they all disappear if you teleport). With this character, I have a habit of letting my Shadow Warrior throw out "free" Death Sentries if I am not currently using any other right button skill, so there were often such traps out even if I had not cast any myself.
Mephisto was fought in an honest fight. I felt that the tanking abilities (blocking, damage reduction, resists, life) of Erica were up to the task, and they were. Fortunately, Mephisto went after the Shadow whenever she was closest, so Erica only tanked 'in second place', just after a Shadow had died and when my recast Shadow did not appear close enough to Mephisto. Razan was left almost without a scratch, and he helped with crushing blows from a 'Strength' Scythe for most of the fight.
Act IV had spawners and finger mages everywhere it was possible. Third monster types were Cliff Lurkers (Steppes), Venom Lords (Plains), Pit Lords (City) and Maw Fiends (River).
Hellforge dropped an Ist rune, a grailer for me. There are now only five rune types I have never seen (Lo is the lowest).
Crappy random rune drops from Travincal and up to where I am now, though - nothing higher than Hel.
Diablo hated Razan, so he was left dead for nearly the whole fight. I resurrected him once but he fared no better that time, so I gave that up. Diablo ignored the Shadow unless she was the only one within melee range, so Erica had to tank Diablo. It was only the Firestorm that was any sort of threat, and it is pretty easy to sidestep away from the bulk of it. I used Dragon Talon with my Strength claw. With only 2400-something AR against Diablo's high blocking and with only 25% CB, it was quite a grind to get /p3 Diablo down to low life levels. I took out the last bit of life with Death Sentries.
I am somewhat tempted to make a Silence bow now (I have stashed a Crusader Bow that would get 6 sockets from Larzuk), and go with an Act I merc, at least for the outdoor Act V areas. Too bad there is no poison damage (to stop regeneration) on that bow and I have not been clever enough to save any Jewels of Envy. If I had, I could have made a customized 4-socket armor for a rogue merc, with an Envy jewel, a Fervor jewel and some damage boosters.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 84, Hell Bloody Foothills next[/Highlight]
I had to be careful with the Death Sentries there. If a corpse of something with a lot more life than a bone fetish explodes, it may be able to kill a bone fetish even if it's at full life, and their bone shattering is dangerous to be close to. More than once, I used Teleport with the main purpose of clearing out traps (they all disappear if you teleport). With this character, I have a habit of letting my Shadow Warrior throw out "free" Death Sentries if I am not currently using any other right button skill, so there were often such traps out even if I had not cast any myself.
Mephisto was fought in an honest fight. I felt that the tanking abilities (blocking, damage reduction, resists, life) of Erica were up to the task, and they were. Fortunately, Mephisto went after the Shadow whenever she was closest, so Erica only tanked 'in second place', just after a Shadow had died and when my recast Shadow did not appear close enough to Mephisto. Razan was left almost without a scratch, and he helped with crushing blows from a 'Strength' Scythe for most of the fight.
Act IV had spawners and finger mages everywhere it was possible. Third monster types were Cliff Lurkers (Steppes), Venom Lords (Plains), Pit Lords (City) and Maw Fiends (River).
Hellforge dropped an Ist rune, a grailer for me. There are now only five rune types I have never seen (Lo is the lowest).
Crappy random rune drops from Travincal and up to where I am now, though - nothing higher than Hel.
Diablo hated Razan, so he was left dead for nearly the whole fight. I resurrected him once but he fared no better that time, so I gave that up. Diablo ignored the Shadow unless she was the only one within melee range, so Erica had to tank Diablo. It was only the Firestorm that was any sort of threat, and it is pretty easy to sidestep away from the bulk of it. I used Dragon Talon with my Strength claw. With only 2400-something AR against Diablo's high blocking and with only 25% CB, it was quite a grind to get /p3 Diablo down to low life levels. I took out the last bit of life with Death Sentries.
I am somewhat tempted to make a Silence bow now (I have stashed a Crusader Bow that would get 6 sockets from Larzuk), and go with an Act I merc, at least for the outdoor Act V areas. Too bad there is no poison damage (to stop regeneration) on that bow and I have not been clever enough to save any Jewels of Envy. If I had, I could have made a customized 4-socket armor for a rogue merc, with an Envy jewel, a Fervor jewel and some damage boosters.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and Razan the Might guard, level 84, Hell Bloody Foothills next[/Highlight]
An ist! Very nice.
I thought you had an ohm and was considering making CtA? Perhaps I'm remembering wrong...
I thought you had an ohm and was considering making CtA? Perhaps I'm remembering wrong...
jiansonz
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No, you are right, but CtA requires a Mal rune as well, which I do not have. I am not likely to find one either, with only one act to go now.
Rune situation is like this:
Ohm
Vex
Gul
Ist
Ko x2
Lum x3
Io x4
Hel x7
This is both amazing and annoying. Four pretty darn high runes, but nothing between Ist and Ko.
The only 'advanced' runewords I can make are Silence and Death.
Dang
I thought for sure you'd be able to cube a mal. Maybe you'll get lucky from a chest, still
jiansonz
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The way up to the Ancients' Way entrance (nicely in sight from the WP on Frozen Tundra!) is now cleared. It has not been that awkward with a melee merc in this act, mostly thanks to my Shadow Warrior and the occasional Teleport. The Shadow really is an excellent tank, especially against elemental damage (think Burning Dead Archers!). Unless it is an emergency summoning, I always have her cast Fade the first thing she does. If my info is correct, she uses level 17 Fade (1/3 of my level in Shadow Warrior (21/3=7) plus half of my level in Fade (21/2=10)) and that makes her resists great. She is also practically poison immune when Faded. I first noticed that back in Act II. When mummies and such hit her, she blinked green just for a moment. 17% PDR is not to be sneezed at either.
I´ve fought PI Frenzytaurs in two areas (Abaddon and Glacial Trail) but no bosses or champs of them, thankfully.
Frozen River had a foul beast that really scared me. It was actually spawned from that evil urn that is always there (but not always guaranteed to spawn anything since the spawn position seems to sometimes happen where there is no area of the place). I was very very careful with that one. A Faded Shadow survived for a while, but Fire Blasts alone took too long so I went back and resurrected Razan. He needed three more resurrections in that fight, plus I used half a dozen purples to help him. Phew!
There was a second evil urn, causing concern now that I knew that Gloams were on the menu. But that one created a lone Berserker.
The resist scroll made me switch out 5 inventory spaces of resist charms so I could add more life charms. Cold resist is now down to 72 but I think I can manage...
Hehe, guess what a Wraith boss dropped!
Not easy to know what to do now. One option is to cube a Lo rune and make Fortitude. Either in a Full Plate for Razan (too bad I have no suitable Loricated Mail, Hellforge Plate or Shadow Plate, those would make more use of the Defense boost), or in an ethereal Highland Blade for an barb merc. Need to think about that for a while before I continue playing.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and (maybe) Razan the Might guard, level 85, Hell Nihlathak's Temple next[/Highlight]
I´ve fought PI Frenzytaurs in two areas (Abaddon and Glacial Trail) but no bosses or champs of them, thankfully.
Frozen River had a foul beast that really scared me. It was actually spawned from that evil urn that is always there (but not always guaranteed to spawn anything since the spawn position seems to sometimes happen where there is no area of the place). I was very very careful with that one. A Faded Shadow survived for a while, but Fire Blasts alone took too long so I went back and resurrected Razan. He needed three more resurrections in that fight, plus I used half a dozen purples to help him. Phew!
There was a second evil urn, causing concern now that I knew that Gloams were on the menu. But that one created a lone Berserker.
The resist scroll made me switch out 5 inventory spaces of resist charms so I could add more life charms. Cold resist is now down to 72 but I think I can manage...
Dezrok said:
Hehe, guess what a Wraith boss dropped!
Not easy to know what to do now. One option is to cube a Lo rune and make Fortitude. Either in a Full Plate for Razan (too bad I have no suitable Loricated Mail, Hellforge Plate or Shadow Plate, those would make more use of the Defense boost), or in an ethereal Highland Blade for an barb merc. Need to think about that for a while before I continue playing.
[Highlight]Conqueror Erica the Assassin and (maybe) Razan the Might guard, level 85, Hell Nihlathak's Temple next[/Highlight]
Very nice!
Alternatively you can use any half-decent wep and fortitude armor will still give crazy ED boost. Fort wep is very stylish.. though
Chilling armor <3
I've been meaning to ask why you don't have the life numbers appear above your life bulb.. mana, too. Do you think they're too distracting or provide a false sense of security if they're too high?
Alternatively you can use any half-decent wep and fortitude armor will still give crazy ED boost. Fort wep is very stylish.. though
Chilling armor <3
I've been meaning to ask why you don't have the life numbers appear above your life bulb.. mana, too. Do you think they're too distracting or provide a false sense of security if they're too high?
jiansonz
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- Jun 22, 2003
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If I keep my Might merc and make the armor for him, that +300% ED would be added to his other sources of off-weapon ED (Might and STR bonus), right? According to my hireling stats sheet, he is currently using level 17 Might which gives +200% ED. So a Fortitude armor would boost his damage 1.5 times more than his Might does, plus he gets that boost even before 'switching on' the aura after a resurrection or at the start of a game. That sure sounds nice. So the choice then becomes one between huge damage (continue with Might merc) or I could go for very good damage combined with either:
- OK cold damage and crowd control (Holy Freeze; Con: risk for corpse shattering)
- barely ever miss (Blessed Aim, which would be helpful for Erica's Crushing Blow kicks as well!)
- slightly less impressive damage but fast healing and mana regeneration (Prayer merc with 'Insight' stick)
I've been meaning to ask why you don't have the life numbers appear above your life bulb.. mana, too. Do you think they're too distracting or provide a false sense of security if they're too high?
I think they are distracting, ugly, take up space on the screen and do not add anything that helps me (if I want to know the exact number, I bring up the character screen). It's interesting because in most computer RPGs (Eye of the Beholder, Baldur's Gate, Torment, etc.) I usually prefer the numbers. Probably because they are much lower numbers in those games.
Oh ok..
BTW def go with insight + prayer <3
Best combo ever! That will make your team a lot sturdier imo, but I hate using non-rejuvs..
BTW def go with insight + prayer <3
Best combo ever! That will make your team a lot sturdier imo, but I hate using non-rejuvs..
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