good showing, phatbrava. Making a Destroyer on your first HC attempt is impressive.
Victor's having a lot of fun with Fanaticism lately. In my last few sessions, it seems like half the aura-enchanted bosses I encounter have Fanaticism. Most of the time it's not a huge problem, but it's cost me at least a million gold in extra merc resurrections.
It started with Sszark. Alone, he's bad enough. Boosted by a back-up boss pack with Fanat... things got ugly quick. Spiders swarmed around the golem, exposing the merc. Forget about it! Instant merc death. Even the golem went down quick, from poisoning and a severe beating. I was reduced to teasing out one or two spiders at a time. Sszark and the other boss were last in line. Sszark wasted Razan again in a one-on-one fight. Finally I got the golem to tank both spiders, and Razan earned his revenge.
I cleared a zombie-packed Great Marsh without trouble, and started the Flayer Jungle. CE took out the flayer packs, even as they scattered about. The long range even blasted the dart blowers hanging out on the sidelines. I kept Victor safe by standing near a few corpses. If any flayers attacked me (which happened often) I blasted 'em as they closed in.
At the end of one section of Flayer Jungle, I saw a dual-boss pack of Shamen/flayers trapped on an island formation. Their pathfinding caused them to spill out from around a bridge, catching my flank by surprise. They had extra strong and cold attacks, boosted by fanat. Merc died, Victor took a cold hit, and I'm crawling to get away. Two more hits, a rejuv, and finally a teleport to pull the golem back. They ignored the golem, stabbed me again, and I had to teleport across the river. Safe at last.
I got jumped again later by the Gibdinn pack. The map spawned the Gibdinn shrine on a tiny peninsula by itself. Usually the pack spawns off to the side and runs at you. This time, with limited space, the pack spawned
around Victor. Heart attack! I squirmed out and teleported behind the golem/merc. Close call.
The Flayer Dungeon housed some powerful packs, but no NDEs. The Witch Doctor minions (FE Cursed Fanaticism) put up a good fight until CE took them out. Both Endugu "segments" dropped a pair of rares, two of which were elite armors (nothing good though).
Swampy Pit was the toughest yet, with Gloams, dolls, and mummies. Ouch. On level two the merc and golem rounded a corner, picked up a Conviction aura, and Razan disappeared. Just like that. I snuck a peek and located a LE Spectral Hit Conviction Gloam Pack. Dear God, I think I'll steer clear of that room. No thank you.
I pulled the golem's leash and luckily he pulled the boss with him. I resurrected Razan and got him to kill the boss before the other gloams came in. Phew!
Lower Kurast was a breeze, with weak monsters. Treasure rained in. Five uniques fell, including Blackhorn's Face and Thundergod's Vigor. My first T-God's, what an awesome belt! I also found a couple pairs of
damage-boosting gloves. But what does Victor care about paltry greens and golds? Victor scorns second-hand crap. In search of more rares, I dove into the fearsome temples.
I entered Sarina's temple among a few spiders. No big deal. But then Sarina's pack stormed in ahead of schedule (yep, Fanaticism). There's no room to re-enter if I run out the door, so I teleported down one of the wings. Uh-oh... 3 wailing beasts in the end room. They picked up the Fanat aura when Sarina's pack closed in, and killed Razan. My poisoned Golem was fading fast. I TPed out, and re-entered through the main door. I teleported down the other hallway, which was clear. The golem blocked the doorway and we mopped them up.
All the remaining temples were tense, but the last one was the toughest. I rounded the corner of the entry room and ran into a dual pack of snakes (one boss had Fanat, of course). My formation was strong and the first three snakes were killed easily. For some reason Razan wandered deeper into the room and got killed trying to tank the Fanat boss (at least he scored a couple hits though). I exploded the three snake corpses which slivered the boss. The golem died and I was pushed back a little to the entry room. A new golem occupied them while I threw knives at the slivered boss. I almost had him. Then a lone minion came in around an alternate doorway towards the golem, suddenly changed his mind, and charged me. It scored four rapid hits knocking me back on each. I realized I was hitting F4 (instead of 4) trying to drink a rejuv. Two things saved my life:
1. The snake lost its Fanat aura as it pursued me, so the last hits were weaker.
2. The knockbacks sent me sprawling into the stairwell, which I used to duck out.
I had 60 life. Whoa! A new low for Victor. I went back in with Razan and the boss died quick. After that, piece of cake. I found Victor's third elite set item, Ondal's Almighty Spired Helm.
The Durance had plenty of scary sights, with FE dolls and such. I didn't risk any exposure to p5 doll death bursts. The open areas kept me pretty safe from that. Bremm had Fanaticism, but was the first to be lured out and killed alone, ending that threat before it started. Here's a screenshot of Victor using
new toys against Mephisto. I used level 4 Ice Blasts from a rare ring (gambled), and cold arrows from
this bow. Anything to help out. The bow has become Victor's preferred weapon on the switch. Cold arrows don't miss, and help keep Razan safe on occasion. It costs about 800 per charge, but p5 drops provide so much gold that I don't mind paying it.
Act 4 was cleared all the way the the CS easily, thanks to CE. Once Razan kills a few baby spawners, I set off a chain of CEs to kill everything. Same for the maggots/spawners in the River of Flame. It pays to be mindful of which corpses you CE, selecting mother corpses at key times to maximize damage.
At last, the Hellforge!
Surprise! My first Ist! In my long D2 career, I've found Ber, Vex, and a couple Guls, but never a coveted Ist. It's not really too valuable unless you're a dedicated MF'er or twinker. I'd much rather have a Shael or Pul for the merc weapon, or an Um maybe. But I'm happy to find it nonetheless.
IM killed Razan eight times in the CS, but we got the job done. Lord de Seis (Fanat of course) killed Razan again, but thankfully switched auras (Holy Shock) when I returned. Much better. Hopefully that ended my Fanaticism curse.
Diablo had a grudge against Razan. He refused to stick to the golem. Razan could tank a Decrepified Diablo (with a little Life Tap) except for Firestorms. Firestorms wiped out Razan instantly. So whenever Big D conjured one (both arms raised with glowing hands), I teleported away to pull Razan with me. It was comically easy to detect, due to decrep + golem slowing.
I finished the socket quest of Act 5, and made some major final decisions with my gear. Failing to find an ethereal stygian pike or thresher, I imbued the eth Colossus Voulge; hoping for Cruel, IAS, or reduced requirements. I didn't get any of those, but I still got a
great result. The increased damage is well worth the loss of some attack speed and life leech. I Heled the runes out of my armor, used the Hellforge PAmethyst, and gave Razan his new toy. He now does 631-3609 damage, before Amp. :clap:
I equipped Razan's armor, socketed it, and made
this. I simply had to use that rune.
Other gear changes included these field-found
scarabshell boots, made possible by a +18 Str rare demonide sash and a +19 Str rare ring. If I can get the resist scroll, my fire/cold resists will be maxed again (lightning is already maxed)
Conqueror Victor Shen, level 87, Act 5 Hell, Frigid Highlands
Between the sparks, hits and lots of Hydras (Bremm has minions too, you know) my whole army got pwned. There were also two Blood Lord champs entering the fight. Somehow I managed to lure Bremm (and nothing else) far down in the first room, then escape up the stairs. With the help from Dim Vision (to remove the Hydra spamming) merc and golem could now slowly kill the council minions, while the two Blood Lords were still having fun. The Blood Lords also got slain without Bremm noticing us.
