Okay, so I've given the outcome away, but the journey still needs to be told.
I was very nervous heading into Nihilithak's Temple. To have come so far and then deed would be disappointing and Nihili is certainly a place for deeding. The Temple at the start was a breeze. Even without using CE Jemali took the corpses down fast. Pindle had Fanaticism but that couldn't save him from Jemali.
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Hall of Anguish had Prowling Dead, Horror Mages and Flayers (the melee ones) .. a breeze. Halls of Pain had Razor Spine, Guardians and more Flayers (the blow dart ones this time). A bit less opportunity to make use of CE but still straightforward. Guardian's are super useless when they have no undead to rezz. Into the Halls of Vaught and first up we met some Prowling Dead, then some Flayers (both melee and ranged), so far so good! But then, I heard a sound I'd been dreading and the CG icon suddenly vanished. Tomb Vipers!! Crap!
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The chance of deeding just went through the roof. Play became very cautious. CG cast repeatedly to scout around, at the first sign of a monster spam DV, and no moving until we were sure the coast was clear. Luckily the first wing we cleared had Nihli in it, but then the dilemma was whether to risk clearing the remaining three wings or call it quits and move on to the Ancient's Way. We persisted and slowly but surely did the clear.
Nihli's drop was interesting but useless:
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Even more nervous now, one of the final hurdles cleared. I used my remaining Larzuk reward to socket Jemali's Stealskull and put a shael in it. Also personalised the Fortitude Cryptic Axe. Right, Ancient's Way had Dark Lancers, Reanimated Hordes and Afflicted. Easy. The Icy Cellar was a bit tougher, with Hell Lords, Hell Temptresses and Pit Vipers, but we prevailed.
On to the next hurdle. The Ancients. And Bamm! We were cursed and Jemali was very suddenly in a bad way. Feed Jemali some purples, spam some decrep and run to the top right corner. Followed by
Korlic (FE/Stoneskin) and
Talic (LE/Teleport). Make a stand for a bit, but while still cursed Talic's whirls were really hurting Jemali. So race around the edge some more and somehow isolate
Madawc (CE/Cursed) in the top left corner. Block him behind a pillar between Jemali and the CG and his death was rapid. Waited a while for the curse to wear off, but got bored so headed back into the fray. Even though still cursed Jemali was able to quickly take out the other two and it was over. On to the World Stone Keep and the nervousness continues to rise.
WSK 1 had Flesh Spawners, Vile Witches and Black Lancers. Very easy for us. WSK 2 was also easy with Serpent Magus, Horror Mage and Fiends. WSK 3 was a bit more challenging, with Demon Sprite, Soul Killers and Hell Temptresses. The Hell Temptresses were PI. We could stop them from attacking with DV or remove their PI with Decrep. Large packs of them could obliterate the CG and really hurt Jemali, plus the Fortitude's Hit Causes Monsters to Flee would kick in and override the decrep on the monster Jemali was attacking, meaning he could no longer hurt it. Unlikely had to constantly keep DV on the majority of the Hell Temptresses, while spamming Decrep on the one Jemali was attacking. This took a very long time to clear, but we got there eventually.
Down to the Throne and Undead Soul Killers in a stair trap both to the left and right of the entrance. We ran! Just around the corner was a Champion and Possessed Death Lord. Could things get any worse. Jemali had stayed by the entry to fight the Undead Soul Killers, so Unlikely was on his own with the Possessed Death Lord breathing down his neck, having already smacked Unlikely as he ran past (taking a big chunk of his life). Decrep doesn't work on him (obviously) but did slow the Champion down. If I keep running Unlikely will end up back in the Undead Soul Killers by the entrance, probably just as Jemali kills one. If I stop, then that Death Lord is going to spread Unlikely all over the walls. If I run further into the ToD … don't even think about it!!!
Then a miracle happened. The Possessed Death Lord stopped. Just for a moment. Maybe it stubbed it's toe? But it gave a small gap between us, which gave me enough confidence to try casting a portal which Unlikely dived through. Okay, regroup in Harrogath and then back through the portal. Jemali to tank with the CG and the Undead Soul Killers left by the entry for afters. No problems. Some starting space cleared so we were set to press on further into the ToD and we hadn't taken more than a few steps when Hell Witches appeared cursing the lot of us. More Death Lords, a boss pack this time and Jemali dies way too quickly. His first death of the Act. So glad I decided not to run this way when being chased by that Possessed Death Lord. Okay, retreat to Harrogath, regroup and return a bit more cautiously this time. Draw monsters out, kill them and move on.
Into the Throne Room and time for the Minions. The first 4 waves were easy enough and we hit level 85 during the 4th wave. Now for Lister and co. These guys could be a problem. Jemali wanted to race into them and tank:
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And tank he did, barely moving the entire fight.
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So time for Baal. I spent Unlikely's hoarded stat points on an extra 30 Vitality (60 life) and put a wand with lvl 1 Enchant charges into the inventory. Jemali's biggest weakness was his low AR (1948 according to GoMule), meaning he missed a fair bit, so I figured an extra 20% would be better than nothing against Baal. The fight was safe with Baal slowed by the CG and under decrep but took about 15 mins because Jemali really did miss alot. When he did hit there was a very noticeable drop in Baal's life. No potions used, no recasting the CG, no trips back to town.
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Unlikely's LCS at Baal
Jemali's stats at Baal
Cows up and I decided to see how it went only using Attract and CE. Attract to build massive piles of beef and then CE to blast them all to pieces once Jemali made a kill. It almost started in disaster when a Cursed/PI boss snuck into the starting pack right near the red portal. Things had been going well but then Jemali was suddenly dead and a huge pack of cows was charging at Unlikely. Oops! We managed to retreat and portal out. Rezz Jemali and return. Blow up the rest of the cows and then Decrep the boss and take him down. The rest of Cows was simple and fast. Attract and CE is a good combination at /p1.
THE END
