Single Skill Tree Tourney

Well I got off work early today and having a sore throat and lacking energy what better than to play some Diablo :)

LiveAndLetDie is now in act 2 Hell difficulty.. Farthest wp Lost City.. Farthest quest The Tainted Sun.. She is now level 77.

I have invested in a lifetap wand as secondary weapon.. Expensive to keep charged, but it prevents my merc from dying everytime we encounter a huge group of monsters or lightning enchanted monsters.. He was costing me a fortune, so the money for the wand was well spend :)

Only problems I encountered today was going through Halls of the Dead.. Took me a long time to get through it.. and then getting the amulet in Viper Tempel.. that level 2 was hard work, but I managed fine.. So now I am off to the Palace next time I play :)
 
Finally able to start my char, I made it to the Far Oasis. Nothing really spectacular to report.

Character Name: myterra
Character Class: Shadow Assassin
Character Level: 21
Farthest Quest: Radament, Normal
Farthest WP: Far Oasis, Normal
Game Version: 'vanilla' 1.11 HC
 
Well, Mithuad is level 78 now. And he is again trying to reach the Halls of the Dead WP, without success. There is a really nasty boss standing right behind the stairs down to level 2 and I ran out of money for resurrecting my merc :(

I'm now back in the Mausoleum for both money and perhaps a better weapon, but can't play any more before next weekend.
 
Oh dear, how easy it has been in Hell so far! Up to this point, Mark has been so far away from danger it´s almost ridiculous. As I see it, the only things in the first act that have any chance at all to be dangerous for him are:
* Stairs traps in the Tower
* Champion archer women if I have little space to move
* Possessed Brute/zombie/goat
* FE + LE boss in the beginning of a cramped area
* Andariel (unlikely, but you never know)

Extra Strong + Cursed Hungry Dead boss? No sweat, Mark can "tank" that with almost no risk of even getting cursed...

I took Crypt and Mausoluem on /p3, the rest on /p1.

No real interesting finds in these areas. I found Tal´s belt (the one that was so awesome for my S/U worshipper barbarian) but Mark was not impressed. Puny partial set bonuses, too.

When it comes to elite bows, I have seen three (useless) magical Blade Bows and one imbuable Spider Bow. A little tempting, but I resisted. I will imbue the fastest bow types when they show up.

I still visit Gheed (when I don´t need to see Akara for healing or scrolls) quite often and look for red belts and armors. He came through with an armor that is better in all areas than my 2s Leather of the Whale: Artisan´s Light Plate of the Whale with +98 life! Thanks, dude!! Not only is it simply awesome, it´s stylish as well. :cool:

Gambled up 1.5 million gold on Long Battle Bows. No elite, a few decent rare Large Siege Bows and even a Cruel Large Siege Bow that actually had Havoc Flight beat on the max. damage value. But it was far inferion in the min. damage, and it´s slower.

Character Names: Champion Isolde (& Conqueror Mark)
Character Class: Fire Rogue (assisted by curses-only necro)
Character Levels: 76
Farthest Quest: Sister´s Burial Grounds, Hell
Farthest WP: Cold Plains, Hell
Game Version: 'vanilla' 1.10 HC
Total MF: +213% for Isolde´s kills, +121% otherwise
 
Every time I played in this tournament I was either training or doing quests. My last training stage was leveling in Hell Mausoleum. Now it is over. No other training took me so much time as this one. I cannot remember when I was questing last time, however thread search said that last time I completed Blood Raven quest at 29th of September. After that I spent almost month in Mausoleum Training as I call it. I finished it when my mercenary hit level 81 to be able to use Arioc's Needle.

Yesterday I started my last questing stage in this tournament. This time I will kill Hell Baal or die trying.

Entire Act 1 was easy, save for physical immune monsters. My hireling alone killed light monsters in 1-2 hits. Physical immunes was my only problem. Level 28 Venom was not enough to kill a single ghost. To solve the problem of killing a boss pack of ghosts I have not found better strategy than to mark all of them with Prevent Monster Healing talon and to let Shadow Master to kill them all. It is working perfect. Shadow uses elemental martial arts skills and traps (Death Sentry is my favorite, but it is too rare). To help her I use Venom and Haseen is using high poison damage of Arioc's Needle.

Countess dropped Eth.

I killed Andariel at /players3 with 177% MF. Prize stash got Toothrow unique Sharktooth Armor.

Now my second Bartuc’s is socketed with Io too.

Soledad
Shadow Disciplines Adept
Level 81
Farthest Quest: Sisters of Slaughter (Hell)
Farthest WP: Lut Gholein (Hell)
Pure 1.11b HC
Interesting screenshots: My Stats and Inventory, Haseen’s Stats.
 
The hardest area in Hell Act 2 was Arcane Sanctuary with its physical immune Specter packs. Thanks to Lord I found Summoner in the first branch that I took.

/players3 Duriel tried to kill my non-killable level 30 Shadow Master. Therefore he died with honor and leaved me Steeldriver unique Great Maul.

I think I found more valuable items today than in all Mausoleum runs I did. Here is their list:
Baranar's Star (my first ever for five years)
Raven Frost (from an urn!!!)
175 poison damage Large Charm (useless with Venom)
Gaean Amulet of Wizardry (+3 Druid Elemental Skills, +20 Energy)
Dol Rune
Shimmering Small Charm of Greed (+5% all resistances, +8% gold find)
7 perfect gems.

Soledad
Shadow Disciplines Adept
Level 82
Farthest Quest: The Seven Tombs (Hell)
Farthest WP: Kurast Docks (Hell)
Pure 1.11b HC
 
Impedimenta
Tankazon
Level 44
Farthest Quest: Den Of Evil (NM)
Farthest WP: Cold Plains (NM)
Pure 1.11 HC RWM.

finally made some progress.. the ancients and baal were easy. baals minions were easy. might kill em a couple more times and hope for some it4mz.
 
Act 3 was much larger than Act 2 as always, but I found it easier because it didn’t hold so much undeads. It means that both my and hireling’s life leach kept us at full life all the time. Fetishes have so low hit points that they dropped like dominoes. But the best aspect of my playing in Act 3 was almost complete absence of physical immunes (swarms are exception, but they was very vulnerable to poison of my Venom…). It was so nice. Only in Flayer Dungeon a ghost pack caused me some troubles, when I marked them with PMH and was waiting for my shadow to kill them, trying not to yawn.

The most remarkable fight in jungles was in The Great March, when I was searching for GM waypoint. At one of the false branches of the way with river it was met by a grope of three boss packs and a champion pack. It was two flayer shamans with friends, one of them held Fanaticism, others were a physical immune Cursed zombie and a shaman champions. This hell mixture managed to kill both my companions: a hireling and a shadow. I handled them by slow luring away and killing one by one separately.

In Kurast Bazaar temple in search of Tome I was well met by stair trap, however I was ready to cast Terror and easily managed to destroy the ambush.

As it supposed to be I have spent several hours in Durance of Hate. It was not because of its great size, but mainly because of deadly Undead Stygian Dolls, that are my worst enemies after Oblivion Knights.

At the entrance to Mephisto’s chamber at level 3 I found Holy Freeze Bremm in company with Conviction Vampire pack. That duo easily killed my poor merc several times, so I parked them and gone directly to their chief. (I wasn’t in any danger thanks to T-God and Raven Frost. My shadow was completely immune to magic too because of her level 30 + level 30 Fade that she selected this time.)

Lord of Hatred himself was easily defeated at /players3 settings, but I was tired and forget to put my MF wears on. He dropped all rare.

This time I haven’t found any items to brag about, just tons of socketed elite items that I sold to feed my merc with gold (including 3 socketed Thresher).

Soledad
Shadow Disciplines Adept
Level 82 (1M away from level up)
Farthest Quest: The Guardian (Hell)
Farthest WP: Pandemonium Fortress (Hell)
Pure 1.11b HC
 
Warrior of Light said:
Act 3 was much larger than Act 2 as always
Click to expand...

That is simply not true. If there is any significant difference, act 2 is larger than act 3.


Just mind-blowing progress on your part. :clap: I am glad if I can make it to the Black Marsh this weekend...
 
It seams that monsters in Act 4 have much more hit points than in Act 3. I fought longer for every step there. However it was constant advance. Eventually I met Izual. He died faster that I expected. I guess 95% crushing blow equalize all bosses.
Hephasto at the other hand was Fanaticism Enchanted Cursed and killed my friends many times before I killed him.

Hell forge produced Pul and Perfect Emerald. It was strange. I cannot remember exactly now, but I think I got Lum from NM Hell forge. I upgraded one of my Bartuc’s.

To fight in Chaos Sanctuary I dug Doomslinger unique repeating crossbow out of my SSTT mules. However I had so low attack rating that I hit them only in 27% times, most of the work was done by Haseen and Shadow.

In the middle of Chaos Sanctuary I ran out of gold because of constant merc resurrections. You know, Tyrael is the greediest angel ever! I earned money in Lower Kurast and different parts of Act 1. BTW during such runs I found another unique Death Mask.

Of cause I could buy Rogue for CS and than Might Aura Warrior again, but who will buy and sell friends?

Sooner or later I cleared whole Diablo’s palace. My last seal boss, Grand Vizier of Chaos (ghost), was Physical Immune. I think the game made this gift to me to make Chaos Sanctuary battle the most remarkable one of all my Hell battles.

/players3 Lord of Terror dropped Infernal Torch, Sander’s Superstition, Tearhaunch, Griswold’s Edge and rare mech belt. All of them were sold to supply “Mercenary Resurrection Foundationâ€.

Whole Chaos Sanctuary took me one hour with half.

My next report will be final. Wish me luck.

Soledad
Shadow Disciplines Adept
Level 83
Farthest Quest: Terror’s End (Hell)
Farthest WP: Harrogath (Hell)
Pure 1.11b HC

P.S.: I knew that you will say this about my progress, Jiansonz. ;) Oh, and the way between all quests and all waypoints in Act 2 is much shorter IMHO. Of cause I don’t count tombs and such.

P.P.S.: Forgot to say that I imbued a nice +2 Paladin coronet for prize stash.
 
The start of Act 5 was plain. Imps and Threshers at Bloody Foothills, Spear Cats and Lance Rogues at Frigid Highlands (Fire Archer Skeletons till restart), Hell Clans and Baal Minions at Arreat Plato. All of this was much easier than Act 4.

Crystalline Passage spawned physical immune Blood Lords. Damn, I hate them. Tried to pass by, but ran to Fanaticism Enchanted pack. Barely made teleport to town! “Holy ****! It was close!†— I was sitting at my chair deeply breathing and listening to my heart beat.

After restart I entered the passage again holding Terror wand in my switch hands. Old buddies Frozen Creepers. Nice. But, what is it? Oh, no! Physical immune Blood Lords. Restart again.

After killing Thresh Socket at the third time I finally found acceptable pets: Frozen Creepers, cold Bone Mages and Snow Drifters. Raven Frost made them easy targets.

Evil Urns? No, thanks!

At Frozen River I met Gloams, but my Thunder God belt was enough to counteract their damage. I restarted the level after I have run out of money to resurrect hireling.

Anya gave me impressive 40% IAS, 225% ED, PMH Runic Talons.

I entered to the Halls of Pain only after finding Resist Poison Shrine and met bugged poison vipers. Restart. Tomb Vipers again. I tried them. Slow moving. Shaking fingers at full rejuvenation buttons. Runs to Resist Poison Shrine at City of Damned. Antidotes on my belt. Cloak of Shadows.

I found Nihlathak in the fourth branch.

I restarted Ancients so many times that I ran out of money to resurrect Haseen, out of Life Tap charges and out of full rejuvenation potions. I thought I will not kill them, but eventually I found nice combination of properties. Korlic was Cold Enchanted with Conviction (I was far away when he exploded of cause), Madawc was Holy Fire Mana burn, and IIRC Talic was Extra Fast with something else that I forgot.

Sooner or later I got WSK2 waypoint. However I found WSK3 and ToD without Oblivion Knights only at second attempt.

Throne of Destruction was cleared to park Lister. Other minions died.

Baal Dropped Unique Crossbow, Set Circlet, 3 rare items and 11k GOLD (I thought he cannot drop gold doing quest drop)!

Guardian Soledad
Shadow Disciplines Adept
Level 84
Farthest Quest: Eve of Destruction (Hell)
Farthest WP: Worldstone Keep Level 2 (Hell)
Pure 1.11b HC


Skills

20 Claw Mastery
20 Fade
20 Venom
20 Shadow Master
1 in all other shadow disciplines
9 skill points in reserve

Stats

100 Strength (175 with items)
100 Dexterity (177 with items)
295 Vitality (335 with items)
25 Energy (base)

General Battle Items

Soledad’s Bartuc’s Cut-Throat Runic Talons. Socketed with Io. 91-172 damage.
Soledad’s Bartuc’s Cut-Throat Greater Talons. Socketed with Io. 82-145 damage.
Soledad’s Guillame’s Face. Socketed with Ral.
Rattlecage Embossed Plate
Crafted Blood Gloves. 10% Crushing blow.
Thundergod’s Vigor
Goblin Toe
Raven Frost. +17 Dexterity. +234 AR
Scintillating Ring of the Wraith. +13% all resistance, +5% mana leach
The Cat’s Eye
Charms with 88 life, 18% fire resistance, 60% cold resistance, 60% lightning resistance, 20% poison resistance, 5% all resistance, +7 max damage, +67 AR, 1-13 lightning damage, 24 defense, 51% gold finding.

Alternative Items
The Mahim-Oak Curio
Scintillating Ring of Precision. 13% all resistance, +12 dexterity.
PMH Claw
Trang-Oul’s Claws (pre-buff)
Sazabi’s Mental Sheath (+1 skills for pre-buff)
Shadow Amulet (+3 skills for pre-buff)
A wand with Level 3 Life Tap charges
A wand with Level 4 Terror charges
A wand with Level 1 Lower Resist charges
4 perfect topazes in Gothic Plate
3 perfect topazes in Great Helm

Might Aura Hireling Haseen

Arioc’s Needle. +2 skills, 100-340 damage, 50% deadly strike
Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest
Rattlecage Embossed Plate
 
Wow.. you have been busy :)

Congratulations I think we have a winner of this tourney :) Well done Warrior

Where do I send my prizestash Corax?

I made it through act 2 tonight. I had a lot of trouble to get through the tomb, because of the psysical immunes.. but I restarted the game and got ghoul lords instead so I finally got down to Duriel..
 
It appears that Warrior is "teh w1nn3r".

Congratulations. It seems like an eternity since I was eliminated, but well done all the same.
 
Congrats, Warrior ! :clap: :clap: :clap:

Update:

Forumname: Cormallon
Character Name: Conqueror Mithuad
Character class: Paladin (offensive)
Character Level: 79
Farthest Quest: Radament (Hell)
Farthest WP: Far Oasis
1.11b HC, no mods

I ran Mausoleum for a while, but no Thresher at all, and no high TC unique as well. I got this instead:

Cruel Mancatcher of the Locust
Two-Hand Damage: 164 to 359
Durability: 24 of 28
Required Dexterity: 134
Required Strength: 132
Required Level: 55
Spear Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0xfa387e92
+291% Enhanced Damage
6% Life stolen per hit

Non-PI enemies are no problem with that and fanat on. The few PIs I encountered were slowly killed with conviction on. I think I'll move on and try the sanctuary... next plan is to get another jewel of fervor and then use my Hellrack against PIs while my merc tanks them (hopefully).
 
Congratulations Warrior. Makes my efforts so far look kind of pitiful.

Still, I have progressed a little, taking DarkWind through to the Crystalline Caves and rescuing Anya. It's mostly a matter of finding time to play, which I'm unlikely to do for a couple of weeks.

Current Status:

Character Name: DarkWind
Character Class: Shadow Assassin
Character Level: 39
Farthest Quest: Rescue Anya, Normal
Farthest WP: Crystalline Passage, Normal
Game Version: 'vanilla' 1.10 HC
 
Warrior of Light said:
Guardian Soledad
Click to expand...

Congratulations. :thumbsup:


I hope you don´t mind a couple of questions and comments, and don´t take it too personal.

First of all, these things were totally awesome: :clap:
* The amount of life Soledad has. My Mark is green with envy. He has just over 900 life if he puts on his new armor.
* The STR/DEX bonuses on her gear are just enormous!!
* Anya´s reward claw. Holy crap! I have never seen a Bartuc´s, so I don´t know what it does, but it must be something extraordinary if you prefer to use them over this magnificent claw...

I am curious about the following:
* What were the effective levels (in battle) of Weapon Block, Cloak of Shadows and Mind Blast?
* Sazabi´s helm for prebuffing? Why not a simple Shadow helm?
* 9 points in reserve. Why not invest them in Weapon Block or Mind Blast? Surely a little boost must be better than none. Or are you just showing off? :D
* I see no shield mentioned anywhere. What was normally on the weapon switch? I see you used a Terror wand sometimees. Know that shields can also get Terror charges, and you can save the weapon slot for something like a Life Tap wand.

I find it weird that you would run out of money so often. Rare are the times when I spend more money than I rake in. I mean, two 35k items and you have more than enough money for a resurrection. Have you gambled so much that you never built up a large money reserve?


What´s with all the restarting of areas. :scratch: Haven´t you heard the wise words of our dear Cattleya?:

Code: 
Because we believe that all of the Minions of Hell should die, not just the convienent ones.

Out of all the restarts you mention, I have an immediate answer to how to handle all of them (I can elobarate if you want) except the Fanaticism Blood Lord boss pack incident. I could never NOT accept the monsters I have drawn in an area. I may park a boss that I deem unkillable (or too dangerous with every method I have available) but then I kill everything else and park only the boss.

I can never leave an Evil Urn unopened either. They are not that bad if you are properly prepared. Assassins are one of the better classes for them. Here would be my SOP for them in your situation:
* Clear all possible escape routes completely.
* Stand next to the urn and open a TP.
* Activate urn, cast CoS right away.
* If you find yourself in the middle of a pack, click on the TP.
* If that doesn´t get you out, spam Mind Blast while you drink rejuves. Take the TP or run away when you can.

At least you took on the Vipers. Good. Cloak of Shadows is definitely the key against them.
What monster type did the champ pack in Halls of Vaught consist of? If those are Vipers, I always get a little nervous...

(Restarting the Ancients is fine, since that can be done without making a new game. Besides, they are stupid spirits that have killed many would-be heroes that could otherwise probably have saved their sacred mountain...).


It´s cool that you made Guardian, but I think it would have been even better if you had been going at roughly the same pace as the rest of us that are in Hell (and posting regularly). Imagine the four of us progressing through Hell, swapping battle stories and spurring each other. Now we already know you can´t be beat, only equalled. It took some edge out of the tournament, at least for me. Not that it matters too much, my challenge is mostly personal.

Now, I want you to do a thought experiement. Imagine playing a Shadow Sister like I would do it (one-pass full clear, /p8 in Normal/NM (except for Countess, some act bosses and Ancients) /p1 or /p3 in Hell, depending on how powerful you are). What gear do you think you would have used? Would you have used a shield? A different merc?

The Assassin Shadow skills tree is great. It has a bit of everything. Damage dealing, crowd control, prtoction and utility skills. Just like Necro Curses...



@Cormallon
Now THAT is a Big Stick o´Hurtiness! Are you or the merc using it?
 
Oh yeah, my own progress. I has been pretty good, actually.

I decided to try the first floor of the Pit on /players 3. When I came down, Mark found himself in trouble, for the first time in Hell.

It was almost a stairs trap. A large Devilkin pack and 4-pack of skeleton Champions could see us right away. Mark can easily tank one or even 2-3 such champs, but only if Isolde isn´t harassed. Otherwise it takes too long to kill them, especially at this players setting. This was no good. I ran off to the right, into a pack of archer women. Isolde died, and the champs came running. I portalled out. Upon return from the entrance, I had hoped the champs would be by the portal. Nope, they quickly came back, and it was an even worse fighting situation than before. Now Mark is really on the run, spamming Dim Vision in front of him. An arc of arrows suddenly came flying and just missed. I know that arrow pattern, it´s a damn multishot boss! Run! Isolde dead again, and I set up a portal in a place where there seemed to be only a few normal Devilkin and skeletons. New resurrection, and back through the portal. One champ has followed. That´s OK, just Terror away the other monsters and keep them Dimmed. Tank the champ for Isolde. All calm. I needed more space to fight the critters we had run past (especially that archer boss). I found that space by moving forward even more. We were back in control, a state that would hold true for the rest of the act.

Some news on the bow front:
* Two imbued Blade Bows. They were crap.
* I found a rare Blade Bow in the Pit. +184% damage, +8 minimum damage. Slightly better average damage than Havoc Flight, and faster. Nice.
* At clvl 78, I finally gambled a Crusader Bow! Now it was a lot of ATMA work. Burned through all my chippies (except a few I kept for potential rune cubing), my regular amethysts, diamonds and most emeralds. Scored a 2s Ferocious Crusader Bow of Quality (+194% ED, +3 max). If I double-Shael this, it will be better than the rare Blade Bow. But I didn´t want to use my valuable runes in this bow when I have so many gems left (over 100 regular). So I tried to gamble another Crusader Bow to reroll. Sold all (>100) "valuable crap" items and gambled up the money, to no avail. Bow hunt to be continued...

I´ve had just terrible luck with runes in act 1 Hell. The total harvest of runes above Tir (Countess gave me a single Tir) is:
1 Eth
1 Ith
1 Tal
1 Ral
:lol:

Character Names: Champion Isolde (& Conqueror Mark)
Character Class: Fire Rogue (assisted by curses-only necro)
Character Levels: 78
Farthest Quest: Sisters to the Slaughter, Hell
Farthest WP: Lut Gholein, Hell
Game Version: 'vanilla' 1.10 HC
Total MF: +213% for Isolde´s kills, +121% otherwise
 
Thanks!

It would be my pleasure to answer these questions.

High life is result of 335 vitality (335*3=1005 for assassins), 83 level ups (83*2=166 life for assassins), three Golden Beard quests (3*20=60), charms (88 life total) and probably a bit more from something that I forgot now. If I would continue playing I socket my helm with perfect Ruby for more life. Also I wasn’t expected to find even a single Bartuc at the start of the tournament. So I think I over-pumped my strength and dexterity. I’d like to place more to Vitality instead.

Bonuses:
Strength: 20 + 20 (dual Bartuc’s) + 15 (Guillame’s Face) + 20 (Thundergod's Vigor).
Dexterity: 20 + 20 (dual Bartuc’s) + 25 (The Cat’s Eye) + 17 (Raven Frost)
(I made a mistake at previous post I have 95 base dexterity)
Vitality: 10 + 10 (Io in both Bartucs) + 20 (Thundergod's Vigor).

Anya’s last reward is awesome, indeed! Here it is (note the things, that I forgot in previous post):

Ghoul Barb
Runic Talons
One-Hand Damage: 78 to 143
Durability: 67 of 69
(Assassin Only)
Required Dexterity: 115
Required Strength: 115
Required Level: 60
Claw Class - Fastest Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0x74fd06dd
+225% Enhanced Damage
+51 to Attack Rating
5% Mana stolen per hit
40% Increased Attack Speed
+1 to Lightning Sentry (Assassin Only)
Prevent Monster Heal
33% Damage to Demons
+62 to Attack Rating against Demons

However I prefer my trusty Bartuc’s. Guess why I choose them.

Soledad's Bartuc's Cut-Throat
Runic Talons
'Io'
One-Hand Damage: 91 to 172
Durability: 35 of 69
(Assassin Only)
Required Dexterity: 115
Required Strength: 115
Required Level: 67
Claw Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xb32c9876
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+10 to Vitality
+179% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
8% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
Required Level +7
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+1 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Soledad's Bartuc's Cut-Throat
Greater Talons
'Io'
One-Hand Damage: 82 to 145
Durability: 36 of 69
(Assassin Only)
Required Dexterity: 79
Required Strength: 79
Required Level: 42
Claw Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10 Expansion
Item Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0x530a83b1
+20 to Strength
+20 to Dexterity
+10 to Vitality
+172% Enhanced Damage
+25 to Minimum Damage
+50 to Maximum Damage
5% Life stolen per hit
+2 to Assassin Skill Levels
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+1 to Martial Art Skills (Assassin Only)
Socketed (1: 1 used)

I’m at work ATM, so I don’t have Diablo installed here. However I have ATMA, that I don’t use at home.
So all the fallowing numbers is from my memory:
~42% weapon block
~10 seconds Cloak of Shadows with about +20% defense and –25% enemy defense.
I didn’t use Mind Blast much — the shadow did. IFAIK she has skills of average level between her skill level and my skill level. It means ~17 level Mind Blast — enough to convert last single monster in the battle field for a while. But I loved her impressive stun length, ~3-5 seconds by my measure.

Why I used Sazabi’s helm for casting shadow? Do you know that shadow has a rare helm and body armor of your type? I would prefer an elite helm and armor to cast her, but haven’t luck at them. So I just used Basinet and Embossed Plate for equipping my shadow. This was the best I could find so far. IMHO the best shadow pre-buff items are Tyraels Might (no str for the best defence) and rare diadem (for imbuing shadow with nice random properties).

I reserved 9 skill points to pump Dragon Claw after the end. See DC/Venom guide at assassin’s forum.

I used Moser’s shield before I found Bartucs. I have a wand at switch without shild. Don’t know why. :) I forget about Terror shield. Thanks for the pointing!

My merc died like a fly. All my reserved gold was spent on him with all >10k items, that I found. The main reasons of his deaths: Iron Maiden, Cursed Extra Strong/Might/Fanaticasm, Cold Enhansed (too slow to leach life back), Physical Immune (no leaching). I ran out of gold in Act 4 and wasn’t in the mood of gold hunting.

About monsters. Hmmm. I fear them. I respect you and all great warriors, who can kill all of them. I’d better run away, hide and sneak by them.

I believe I’m not able pass entire game without restarting. I’m not skilled enough.

Good luck in your impossible quest!
 
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