Bones started out his journey in NM by enjoying the boost that Wall and Prison get just by being in this difficulty. Wall and Prison went from ~70 life to ~770 in NM! The first bosspack we ran into in the Blood Moor was an LE zombie pack. In normal, prisoning an LE boss would result in the prison vaporizing instantly due to the bolts, but now it is strong enough to tank them all! I've actually been using Wall a lot more that Prison so far. The Walls are really nice for getting enemies to form into a line and come right at Bones. It's really easy to take groups out when they all get hit by every Spear. Archers and other ranged attackers are excellent candidates for Wall as well as Bones can just cast one between them and us and they will shoot the wall while Kyoko and Bones fire over it. Bosses (especially anything FE, CE, or LE) always get prisoned. I often find that if I prison something in but still leave it space to move that I won't actually attack the prison for a bit. They just kind of stand there or run around a bit.
Bought a +99 Light Belt of the Whale from Charsi before I realized it only has 2 rows and you can't upgrade magic items... Nice to know that of the Whale can spawn already though. Hoping for a 4 socket crystal sword at some point. Spirit would be a nice addition, especially for the +22 to Vitality. Blood Raven got locked up, but took a surprisingly long time to kill. I had two sets of prisons expire before she went down, getting speared the whole time. Does she have a natural Magic resistance?
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An Io was found from the sparkly chest in the Crypt. No Dol yet, and I'm one Shael short of cubing one (I have 3 Shaels now, but I want to keep one available just in case a Lem drop. Kyoko would like very nice in a Treachery!). Poor Coldcrow got locked up and went down without a fight!
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A Boneflesh dropped in the Stony Field, so Kyoko is rocking that now for the OW. There was a boss pack of minions as soon as I entered the Hole. I've been keeping Prison active whenever I enter anything like this just in case. I ended up in a prison with one of the minions but bone armor is strong enough to tank pretty much anything with physical damage at this point, and enemies don't last long enough while getting speared to cause my trouble. I can already tell that Kyoko's Edge bow is starting to lose power. She can still bring things down, but I see her really slowing down in an act or two without an upgrade. With Harmony a pipe dream at this point, I am planning on gambling some bows soon.
Had a unique Grim Wand drop in the Pits Level 1. That's a nice drop and upgrade for Bones, especially with 0 MF! The FCR bumped Bones up a few frames which is already making a noticeable difference.
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I had bought a pair of 40 FRW/38 LRes boots from Charsi earlier in the act but didn't want to equip them until I reached the Outer Cloister WP for a good muling spot. Bones put these on and rearranged charms to keep maxed resistances and improved life a bit. The FRW is really nice as it gives me a bunch more wiggle room when throwing prisons on fast approaching baddies. Catacombs were really easy with liberal use of prison and wall. Andy got prisoned in the room with the pond and didn't attack the prisons. She kept casting the poison nova attack, so Bones just stayed behind Kyoko as we blasted away. We both prebuffed antidotes and Kyoko only needed a few super healers. Nothing interesting from the drop.
A few other screenies from Act 1:
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I ran into Radament and a multi-shot mage boss almost right away when I entered level 3 of the sewers. Liberal use of prison and then CE on the skellies left us with just Raddy. Bones prisons could only hold up for 2 shots from Raddy, but the nice thing about having all of the mana is that Bones is not limited on how many prisons can be cast. I just held right click down and swapped between spear and prison every few seconds until he died.
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Bones scored a Fal rune in Claw Viper Temple. Just a Lum away from a Lionheart now!
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Bones had his first NDE in here as well. I thought that the entrance to a room was cleared, but there were two vipers just inside of the door that I couldn't see and that weren't attacking. I cautiously walked into the room and got hit by them both, which wasn't actually damaging due to bone armor. The knockback, however, drove me further into the room, where a bunch more vipers were waiting. I panic spammed prisons and hit potion keys. I ended up with only one viper in the prison with Bones, which the armor could tank. Once that one was dead I was able to enact vengeance on all the rest of them. I don't think life dropped below a quarter, but still nerve racking when my life total is just over 400... I found my fourth Shael rune here, so I was finally able to cube a Dol to make White in my +3BS wand. I had to finish clearing the temple so that I could mule everything in, but now Bones is sporting a shiny +8 to BS from his wand alone. Also, a very underrated part of White is the +10 to Vitality! Spear damage went up by almost 500! Also, finally shoppped a teleport staff after the temple. I'd been checking each time I went to town all through Act 1 and 2 without seeing one. I didn't want to waste my playing time power shopping and figured I'd see one much earlier than I did. Glad to have that on switch for emergencies now.
Here is a screen shot of the power of bone wall. Bones dropped a few of these upon entering level 2 of the CVT and Kyoko and I wiped the floor with everything in here from total safety.
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Bones got Unravelers in every single tomb... Unravelers seem to cause us more problems than anything else we've encountered so far. They pack quite a punch, the missles can be hard to see, and I'm pretty sure they have a native magic resistance. Single unravelers are no big deal but every boss and champ pack seemed to be them as well. Bones also ran into a few extra fast spectre packs. They just disregard prisons and walls, so Bones had to resort to firing a few spears then running. We will need a better plan than this for Hell. We got away with it because we could put them into hit recovery most of the time with one spear, but that probably won't always be the case. Ancient Kaa himself was super easy.
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Bones hit 60 just before the true tomb, so I spent some time gambling circlets hoping to improve life before the Duriel fight. Ended up scoring a Jeweler's Circlet of the Wolf (+12 life, 2 sockets). Stuck in 2 P. Rubies and now have +88 life from the helm. Good for a 33 point increase, bringing Bones's life total to 480! The Duriel fight was super unclimactic. I dropped ~20ish prisons on him as soon as we entered, then just spammed spear while refreshing prisons every 10 seconds or so. The whole fight cost us 2 mana pots. Bones and Kyoko did not lose any life at all! The drop had a bunch of rares, but none of a useful type or useful mods.
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Bones, Level 60 P&B Necro with Kyoko the Fire Rouge. Act 3 NM. Full game clear at P8.
