Re: The Certain Death Tournament.
The Seals and the forthcoming fight with Diablo ... frankly, I was terrified at the prospect. Still, on the bright side, maybe I'd die before I even saw a Seal! Sure enough, Hephasto required careful negotiation before he was prepared to offer up what he'd been hiding
underneath the 'Forge. I
really wanted an Amn, though.
Once in the Chaos Sanctuary, all that was really required was to DV the Venom Lords (their Infernoes are stone-cold killers if you aren't alert) and avoid getting hit too often by the OK's artillery. Lord de Seis offered little in the way of resistance - surprisingly - I thought he'd be nasty. The Infector of Souls, though ... he couldn't be Dimmed of course and he couldn't be evaded. Just look how far
he chased me when I got separated from my merc - all the way back to the HellForge. How embarrassing!
Well, all the trials and tribulations were as nothing when I opened the last Seal and conjured Diablo. Even lowering from /Players 8 down to P1, this battle was frightening and could easily have ended the adventure. It took an age to finally manouevre Big D into the right position the first time, and every time I returned to town (Stam/Rejuv/Merc res/etc), I had to repeat the performance. It was risky - cast Bone Wall over Big D's head to tie him up and run in, hoping the merc would follow (and not get roasted!). After a few encounters, Big D could
see the end coming, but he put up a huge fight
right to the end. End he did though and I actually yelled for joy. My first HC character and
I beat Diablo. To celebrate, Diablo dropped
junk, but I don't care.
LCS readout
here. My breast plate is up to two flawless topazes now, and I'm one chippy short of the third. Current MF is 106% - not great but MF works better if you survive encounters!
Stuff
Skills
Amp, Weaken, IM, Terror, Decrep, Life Tap. Lower Res - 1 pt
DV - 8
BA - 1
BW - 7
PDag - 15
BA - 125
Block - 75%
MF - 106%
Lower Resist gets cast occasionally, it boosts my kill speed some, but it costs so much mana it's not readily useable yet. I'm looking forward to Nightmare, where I habitually reduce the /Players setting to five (at least, for under-powered characters).
Act Highlight - getting chased nearly all the way back to the City of the Damned by the Infector of Souls - woot, woot!
Ah, Act 5 Normal now, let's hope they're not too many Slingers. :fingerscrossed:
[highlight]WitherStick, Poison Daggermancer, Level 35, Harrogath[/highlight]