Re: RIP: Our Fallen Friends (Ladder Season 5)
Character name: HelloStupid
Character level: 79
Character class: Druid
Character build: Dual-Tree Elemental (Tornado / Fissure) / Summoner
Game difficulty: Hell
Act: 3 (substantially less than one screen from Durance of Hate 2 Waypoint)
Corpse looted: Yes
Death type: PvM
This was my first Hardcore PvM high level death in more than a year and it was one of those D2 encounters that you end up just shaking your head at.
Situation : As it is almost Father's Day, my wife had decided to do me the "favor" of running one of my other characters (my Level 86 Hydra / Orb Sorceress) to help "HelloStupid" get through Durance of Hate and past Mephisto. We had the game all set up and were going nicely when a bunch of people that she "forgot that she had invited over for a party" showed up at the door, so we had to abort that D2 session and re-start about 2 hours later, when everyone had left.
What a
bad decision that turned out to be.
When we started the new session, my wife was playing the Sorceress and I was playing the Druid.
Now before I tell you what happened, first let me give you a flavor for what kind of party we had:
Sorceress : Level 86, 850 life, 60% block, Level 12 or so ES, 880 point Hydras, 330 point Orb (@ -75% Cold Resist), resists from 60 to 75% across the board.
Sorceress Merc : Level 86 Act 2 Prayer (with
Insight Meditation synergy), heals about 35-40 points per second, 2,000 life, 75% across the board resists, -15% PDR via
Treachery, does 1,024-3,000 damage max per hit.
Druid : Level 79, 2,100 life (with Oak Sage up), 50% block, 650 point Cyclone Armor, 900 point Hurricane, 1300 point Tornado, 240 point Fissure, resists from 50 to 75% across the board.
Druid Merc : Level 79 Act 2 Might (with
Bonehew... or at least he
had it, before... :weep
, 3,650 life (with Oak Sage up), 75% across the board resists, -15% PDR via
Treachery, does 1,250-3,700 damage max per hit.
Druid Grizzly : Level 21 with pre-buff, at least 4,000 life (with Oak Sage up), does (probably) about 2,000 damage per swipe.
Plus Oak Sage, Carrion Vine and 5 Ravens. All melee party members were Enchanted for about +150% AR, +200 Fire damage per hit.
So we all get ready, then go down to the Durance 2 Waypoint. We hadn't advanced so much as a half screen from the Waypoint, when we see barreling at us, a pack of 8 or more Might aura Urdars. :shocked: (At this point, I had been slowly advancing, and both Mercs, plus the Grizzly, were in front of me; my wife's Sorceress was slightly behind me.) Both Mercs go down in no more than 2 hits each (may have been one), followed about a second later by the Grizzly.
Needless to say I call a retreat, but it's too late. These Urdars have
rocketed across the screen, and one of them (I am positive that Oak was still up at this point) hits me, I block. My wife Teleports as far backward as possible and then Town Portals back to Kurast Docks. Urdar hits me again; Cyclone Armor and at least 1,000 of my 2,100 life vanishes instantly. I rejuve and throw a Town Portal, but the @#$!#$ Urdars have Knockback, so of course I can never get a second to throw another. :dizzy: (You have
no idea how fast these monsters were. They were literally 'teleporting' all over the screen.) Finally, I get knocked back into the midst of at least 5 Urdars, including the boss (BTW: there were at least 2 bosses, but we only got a good look at one of them), and get killed in one shot right on the Durance 2 Waypoint (I was frantically hitting the rejuve hotkeys; had no effect at all).
The boss that finally did me in, had the following characteristics:
Extra Strong, Extra Fast, Might aura, Lightening Enchanted, Stone Skin, Immune to Lightening. As I mentioned, one of the other Urdars also was a boss, I didn't get a good look at him but I think I saw Fire Enchanted and Extra Strong.
For the record, my wife
might have been able to have avoided this, had she thrown some Hydras out in front and then fired off an Orb or two, to slow these horrific things down. But as she wasn't that familiar with the character, its hotkeys or the strategy behind it, I can't really blame her for the fiasco.
Now this Druid had some reasonably good stuff, namely a low
Skins, a nice
Lore Druid hat,
Magefists,
Tiamat's shield, a
Spirit sword,
Sandstorm Trek boots, etc., I figured that I should at least try to get it back.
The problem was that the Urdar boss back was camping out on the Waypoint, or near it. So I had my wife park herself in front of the computer that I had been on, now looking at the scene through poor "HelloStupid"'s dead eyes, and I went upstairs to run D2 on my laptop and bring in my Level 86 Summoner Necro, "Mr_Hate".
The Necro had trouble finding suitable Revives, but eventually, we settled on Marauders from Act 2. I have the wife calling out the play-by-play from the basement... "are they still right at the Waypoint? Yes? OK, tell me when they move off... what's that, 'go'? Here I go!"
The instant that I get to the Waypoint, I step back to let the minions uncluster, which, thankfully, they did. Then my Necro gets his first "being hit over the head" lesson, which relieves him of 500+ of his 1,024 hit points. About 3 seconds later, down goes the 3,900 life Fire Golem. (Note that each time the Urdars hit him, they were taking, counting in the standard physical resistance of all Hell monsters, about 400% reflected damage.) Purple pill and step back further, throwing the Attract curse... a life-saver if ever there was one, since the huge pack of Urdars that was closing in on "Mr_Hate" now turns its attentions to one of their own.
One by one, I see them whack their fellow monsters into oblivion as in turn I Attract a different Urdar, finally, I have a crew of perhaps 6 remaining Marauders, plus 3 or so Revived Urdars, plus my entire army of Skeletons and Mages, plus my Act 1 Merc with Open Wounds, start whaling away at the boss. He finally expires after about a minute and a half, having destroyed nearly my whole army in the process. By the way, did I mention that most of my army had been Enchanted by the Sorceress?
Only half-rhetorically, I'd like to ask the other Forum members, "what on God's green Earth is one supposed to do, to avoid being killed by a mob like that?" Losing a Level 79 character is never fun, but it could have been worse, I could have lost a Level 86 Sorceress and, possibly, a Level 86 Necromancer, as well, I could not have been Looted, and, well, at least I didn't get TPPK'ed...
...although it kind of
feels like I did. :xxx:
Grrr... "Happy Father's Day..." as if. :tombstone:
Cheers
Mr. Bill
