Immortal_Slayer
New member
Great progress Jiansonz, all the best for the last leg of the journey!
Tournament: Envious of the Green and Gold
- Thread starter Morathi1
- Start date
Despite the increased monster life, Dimoak Hew is pretty effective even in act 4. Izual took a lifetime and a half to kill (note to self: drop to players 3 for the Diablo fight) Urdars in the River of Flame were scary, especially the one time I got locked in by a spawner mom and her babies. Terror! That got me out. This was the first time I remembered in a panic situation; bodes well for Hagar's future. Necros have *way* too many things to hotkey.
Boss monsters in open areas are way too easy: dim vision (or even decrepify) the gang, lead the boss out and whack it. This took care of Hephasto and the Infector; wasn't even needed with the other seal bosses. The Infector's pack was a terror as usual, but separating them out was easy. Diablo's lightning hurt even at 75% but the fire and other attacks weren't bad. He even imprisoned me a couple of times but getting out was easy. The fight took a lot of time even at /p3 as I decided to go with level 5 poison nova and decrepify to keep D quiet instead of Iron Maiden or lower resist. I didn't dare switch to Crushflange: low AR + loss in lightning resistance = not good. The Poison Nova approach was fairly safe, a few scrambles to get out of the way of the red lightning but no rejuvs needed. Lots of town trips for thawing potions / red pots / blue pots. Got a full drop, but all junk.
Act 5 has been a breeze so far (although frenzytaurs pack a punch), and is very kind in terms of drops.
So far:
Coral (25% lightning) GC
Lapis (16% cold) GC of Balance <- this may have dropped in act 4
Russe (7% fire) SC
Ocher (7% lighting) SC
Jade (24% poison) GC <- act 4
Amn rune
Sol rune
and ... my second Isenhart's Case. I lose 48% MF *sob* Down to 38% MF now. Not good at all. I also found Isenhart's sword and shield. The game is cruel.
I can upgrade Dimoak Hew to exceptional but I need a perfect Emerald. I'm sure I could have had one by now if I had cubed up everyting Flawed and above. But for now, I need another 2 flawless emeralds. Oh well.
Still gambling stuff. "Successfully" gambled Arcanna's Head (looking for Tarnhelm). Would love some more MF before facing Baal.
Already, resists may not be a concern in nightmare. One or two good resist-all items and I may even be set for Hell.
I accidentally assigned 10 points to Energy (clicking when distracted by she-who-I-better-pay-attention-to) The extra mana is nice for now, but I'll probably respec it vitality later.
Hagar, level 43 Necromancer. Pindleskin's garden and Frozen Tundra next. No Amulet, but all other slots (14 S/U items) occupied.
Good luck on the Guardian run!
Boss monsters in open areas are way too easy: dim vision (or even decrepify) the gang, lead the boss out and whack it. This took care of Hephasto and the Infector; wasn't even needed with the other seal bosses. The Infector's pack was a terror as usual, but separating them out was easy. Diablo's lightning hurt even at 75% but the fire and other attacks weren't bad. He even imprisoned me a couple of times but getting out was easy. The fight took a lot of time even at /p3 as I decided to go with level 5 poison nova and decrepify to keep D quiet instead of Iron Maiden or lower resist. I didn't dare switch to Crushflange: low AR + loss in lightning resistance = not good. The Poison Nova approach was fairly safe, a few scrambles to get out of the way of the red lightning but no rejuvs needed. Lots of town trips for thawing potions / red pots / blue pots. Got a full drop, but all junk.
Act 5 has been a breeze so far (although frenzytaurs pack a punch), and is very kind in terms of drops.
So far:
Coral (25% lightning) GC
Lapis (16% cold) GC of Balance <- this may have dropped in act 4
Russe (7% fire) SC
Ocher (7% lighting) SC
Jade (24% poison) GC <- act 4
Amn rune
Sol rune
and ... my second Isenhart's Case. I lose 48% MF *sob* Down to 38% MF now. Not good at all. I also found Isenhart's sword and shield. The game is cruel.
I can upgrade Dimoak Hew to exceptional but I need a perfect Emerald. I'm sure I could have had one by now if I had cubed up everyting Flawed and above. But for now, I need another 2 flawless emeralds. Oh well.
Still gambling stuff. "Successfully" gambled Arcanna's Head (looking for Tarnhelm). Would love some more MF before facing Baal.
Already, resists may not be a concern in nightmare. One or two good resist-all items and I may even be set for Hell.
I accidentally assigned 10 points to Energy (clicking when distracted by she-who-I-better-pay-attention-to) The extra mana is nice for now, but I'll probably respec it vitality later.
Hagar, level 43 Necromancer. Pindleskin's garden and Frozen Tundra next. No Amulet, but all other slots (14 S/U items) occupied.
Good luck on the Guardian run!
jiansonz
New member
Ancients' Way required patience and care. I had dealt with Carvers in this act before, but not in tight corridors like these. There was always a risk of getting mobbed by a resurrected pack if I had to flee. There were spearwomen too to make it interesting.
Icy Cellar had Abominables aplenty, along with Night Lords (LI Frenzytaurs) and Amp-casting witches. No boss or champ Night Lord, so it was fairly tame. Just had to be careful with those witches.
I started the Ancients fight over 4-5 times because of dead merc, nasty abilities and whatnot. I had left The Impaler in town and carried Spellsteel on the switch so I could separate the Ancients with teleporting. Madawc could be tricked into attacking the Decoy. I may have been a little too fond of drinking blue potions in this fight. Should probably have just let my mana regeneration do its job. Anyway, the thrower went down.
Korlic was up next, and here we had trouble. He completely ignored the Decoy. Jemali had a rough time. I do not remember Korlic's exact abilites but it was something that let him hit hard (Extra Strong or Cursed). I had gotten a look at Talic earlier and I was pretty sure I needed Jemali to tank him, at least at first. I switched back and forth from Cliffkiller to Spellsteel, using Decrepify between the Immolation Arrow burst (3-4 shots). That along with heavy potion investment carried Jemali alive through this fight. I was now down to 2 super healers, one super mana and 7 full purples.
I had hoped that Jemali's physical + cold damage would do the most damage against Talic. Nope, he was too much for Jemali. But now the good news: once Jemali was dead, the Decoy suddenly "worked" again! It wasn't hard to cast the Decoy so Talic wouldn't whirl on her. Once that was arranged, Talic could not kill her and I knew she would last the whole timer. OK, so I just need to stand here and turn him into a pincussion. Trouble was, I missed quite a bit and I was worried my 700 arrows would not be enough. Solution to that: Magic Arrow! Looks like it's auto-hit. Talic may be able to block, but that was pretty much it. A lot more than half the arrows hit, and the combo of my mana steal and mana regeneration kept the blue orb topped. What a nice feeling when I realized I could go on all day if needed. Yay!
Total charge use in my succesful fight: 8 charges Decrepify, 8 charges Teleport.
WSK 1 and 2 were easy. I remember only zakarumites and beetles.
WSK 3 was a different animal. Lots of fleeing ranged attackers (Flayer blowdarters and skeleton mages) and FI Death Lords. I spotted a boss pack of the 'taurs and quickly went the other way. I barricaded myself in a small alcove and had an escape portal ready. Check out the map - the boss pack is camping the entrance room. This was a situation where a ranged merc would have been much better, really, because those flayers and mages had Jemali moving all over the place. I was of course afraid he'd get the boss pack over here. Whenever he went in that direction, I portalled out to stop him from such stupidities. Then he went the other way and lured a Death Lord to us. OK, just a regular one, we can take him.
Would this tactics hold up? Nope, despite all my efforts, the boss came over along with one or two minions. Jemali stepped up to meet them. I recast Decoy as a shield between him and me (as close to me as I dared) and deliberately let Jemali die so I'd get the Death Lords closer to the portal...
...and therefore, out of eyesight of this place. This was quite scary, and note that Cloak of Shadows is used here to shut up most of the stray enemies. Plus it keeps the taurs from using Frenzy.
Thinning out the ranks.
I went NE, then NW and found a large dead-end room that I cleared out. Now I knew I had a very good place for temporary portal parking of tough bosses if I needed it. No problem from here on.
Throne level had a stairs trap made up of a 4-pack of gloams and a boss pack of Horadrim Ancients. That's an old school (pre-1.10) type of greater mummy boss pack (no skeletons) nowadays seen only when they are guest monsters in Act V. It was hard to keep Jemali alive here because of all the gloam lightings flying. They got resurrected like crazy and I had enough to think about dodging those lightnings myself to be able to help him enough. I peeked around the lower right corner and it was empty of monsters. When Jemali died, I did not resurrect him for a while. I lured all the gloams (one at a time) to the back side of the entrance block and killed them there. Everything from Ancients and onward had been on /p1, so those gloams died from 1-2 Immolation Arrows. Nice.
Remember that Champ pack in Act III Sewers? This played out very much like that, so it was nothing new. Just make good use of Decoy, Slow Missiles and Immo Arrows and down they go.
The Baal fight was long and tedious. I went at it alone after Jemali had died the third time. Baal posed little threat to me from a distance. With both fire and cold resists at 85 and with my shield setup on the switch (used whenever I needed protection from (and running past) Festering Appendages) I was pretty safe. Needed just one rejuve when I got a little sloppy.
Drop had no green and gold but it had a low-ish rune and an Essence.
My biggest fear for the cow level was that Jemali would attract too many cows before I was ready for it. So I dumped him in favour of a Cold Iron Wolf. I equipped him with Lidless Wall, Skin of the Vipermagi, Blade of Ali Baba and Natalya's Totem.
The red portal spawned in a perfect spot. Not too far from an inside corner of the central block and FAR away from all cows. Never seen anything quite like this. I saw a boss pack around a corner at the back end of the central block. It was Extra Strong Cursed Aura Enchanted. I decided not to go that way to begin with. Instead, I went into open territory up-left from the red portal. (Much later, I could see that the aura was Holy Shock.)
This pack was a little too big for comfort. Decoy can't take that much onslaught, so I was forced to back off and recast her several times and such a pack required 2-3 mana potions. Packs of about 6 cows were the best. Efficient use of Immolation Arrows (Pierce helps) using up most of my mana and when there were 2-3 cows left, I'd go in with Attack with The Impaler, apply OW and steal back lots of mana.
No cow troubles at all! I didn't even need my ace - Cloak of Shadows.
[Highlight]Guardian Martina the Immozon and Jemali the Holy Freeze guard, level 87, 13 S/U items equipped, Complete Game Clear[/Highlight]
This was a fun character to play. She was very much like it says on the creation screen, a versatile fighter. This is my only bowazon Guardian so far, and only my second Amazon Guardian (the other was from long ago, a boring character that relied heavily on the tanking combo of HF merc + Valkyrie + Decoy).
Thanks to Morathi for hosting the tournament and coming up with the concept.
Two things that really hit home for me in this tourney:
- Darksight Helm is amazing for this type of tourney (at least for a character that isn't an Assassin or Necromancer). CBF, big fire resist and Cloak of Shadows charges.
- Maxed Decoy is one of the best summoning skills in the game:
* If you get the life of your amazon high, the life of the Decoy gets enormous, and as long as she is not poisoned, her life regeneration is insane.
* Casting cost is practically free.
* No casting delay. Spam it all you want.
Icy Cellar had Abominables aplenty, along with Night Lords (LI Frenzytaurs) and Amp-casting witches. No boss or champ Night Lord, so it was fairly tame. Just had to be careful with those witches.
I started the Ancients fight over 4-5 times because of dead merc, nasty abilities and whatnot. I had left The Impaler in town and carried Spellsteel on the switch so I could separate the Ancients with teleporting. Madawc could be tricked into attacking the Decoy. I may have been a little too fond of drinking blue potions in this fight. Should probably have just let my mana regeneration do its job. Anyway, the thrower went down.
Korlic was up next, and here we had trouble. He completely ignored the Decoy. Jemali had a rough time. I do not remember Korlic's exact abilites but it was something that let him hit hard (Extra Strong or Cursed). I had gotten a look at Talic earlier and I was pretty sure I needed Jemali to tank him, at least at first. I switched back and forth from Cliffkiller to Spellsteel, using Decrepify between the Immolation Arrow burst (3-4 shots). That along with heavy potion investment carried Jemali alive through this fight. I was now down to 2 super healers, one super mana and 7 full purples.
I had hoped that Jemali's physical + cold damage would do the most damage against Talic. Nope, he was too much for Jemali. But now the good news: once Jemali was dead, the Decoy suddenly "worked" again! It wasn't hard to cast the Decoy so Talic wouldn't whirl on her. Once that was arranged, Talic could not kill her and I knew she would last the whole timer. OK, so I just need to stand here and turn him into a pincussion. Trouble was, I missed quite a bit and I was worried my 700 arrows would not be enough. Solution to that: Magic Arrow! Looks like it's auto-hit. Talic may be able to block, but that was pretty much it. A lot more than half the arrows hit, and the combo of my mana steal and mana regeneration kept the blue orb topped. What a nice feeling when I realized I could go on all day if needed. Yay!
Total charge use in my succesful fight: 8 charges Decrepify, 8 charges Teleport.
WSK 1 and 2 were easy. I remember only zakarumites and beetles.
WSK 3 was a different animal. Lots of fleeing ranged attackers (Flayer blowdarters and skeleton mages) and FI Death Lords. I spotted a boss pack of the 'taurs and quickly went the other way. I barricaded myself in a small alcove and had an escape portal ready. Check out the map - the boss pack is camping the entrance room. This was a situation where a ranged merc would have been much better, really, because those flayers and mages had Jemali moving all over the place. I was of course afraid he'd get the boss pack over here. Whenever he went in that direction, I portalled out to stop him from such stupidities. Then he went the other way and lured a Death Lord to us. OK, just a regular one, we can take him.
Would this tactics hold up? Nope, despite all my efforts, the boss came over along with one or two minions. Jemali stepped up to meet them. I recast Decoy as a shield between him and me (as close to me as I dared) and deliberately let Jemali die so I'd get the Death Lords closer to the portal...
...and therefore, out of eyesight of this place. This was quite scary, and note that Cloak of Shadows is used here to shut up most of the stray enemies. Plus it keeps the taurs from using Frenzy.
Thinning out the ranks.
I went NE, then NW and found a large dead-end room that I cleared out. Now I knew I had a very good place for temporary portal parking of tough bosses if I needed it. No problem from here on.
Throne level had a stairs trap made up of a 4-pack of gloams and a boss pack of Horadrim Ancients. That's an old school (pre-1.10) type of greater mummy boss pack (no skeletons) nowadays seen only when they are guest monsters in Act V. It was hard to keep Jemali alive here because of all the gloam lightings flying. They got resurrected like crazy and I had enough to think about dodging those lightnings myself to be able to help him enough. I peeked around the lower right corner and it was empty of monsters. When Jemali died, I did not resurrect him for a while. I lured all the gloams (one at a time) to the back side of the entrance block and killed them there. Everything from Ancients and onward had been on /p1, so those gloams died from 1-2 Immolation Arrows. Nice.
Remember that Champ pack in Act III Sewers? This played out very much like that, so it was nothing new. Just make good use of Decoy, Slow Missiles and Immo Arrows and down they go.
The Baal fight was long and tedious. I went at it alone after Jemali had died the third time. Baal posed little threat to me from a distance. With both fire and cold resists at 85 and with my shield setup on the switch (used whenever I needed protection from (and running past) Festering Appendages) I was pretty safe. Needed just one rejuve when I got a little sloppy.
Drop had no green and gold but it had a low-ish rune and an Essence.
My biggest fear for the cow level was that Jemali would attract too many cows before I was ready for it. So I dumped him in favour of a Cold Iron Wolf. I equipped him with Lidless Wall, Skin of the Vipermagi, Blade of Ali Baba and Natalya's Totem.
The red portal spawned in a perfect spot. Not too far from an inside corner of the central block and FAR away from all cows. Never seen anything quite like this. I saw a boss pack around a corner at the back end of the central block. It was Extra Strong Cursed Aura Enchanted. I decided not to go that way to begin with. Instead, I went into open territory up-left from the red portal. (Much later, I could see that the aura was Holy Shock.)
This pack was a little too big for comfort. Decoy can't take that much onslaught, so I was forced to back off and recast her several times and such a pack required 2-3 mana potions. Packs of about 6 cows were the best. Efficient use of Immolation Arrows (Pierce helps) using up most of my mana and when there were 2-3 cows left, I'd go in with Attack with The Impaler, apply OW and steal back lots of mana.
No cow troubles at all! I didn't even need my ace - Cloak of Shadows.
[Highlight]Guardian Martina the Immozon and Jemali the Holy Freeze guard, level 87, 13 S/U items equipped, Complete Game Clear[/Highlight]
This was a fun character to play. She was very much like it says on the creation screen, a versatile fighter. This is my only bowazon Guardian so far, and only my second Amazon Guardian (the other was from long ago, a boring character that relied heavily on the tanking combo of HF merc + Valkyrie + Decoy).
Thanks to Morathi for hosting the tournament and coming up with the concept.
Two things that really hit home for me in this tourney:
- Darksight Helm is amazing for this type of tourney (at least for a character that isn't an Assassin or Necromancer). CBF, big fire resist and Cloak of Shadows charges.
- Maxed Decoy is one of the best summoning skills in the game:
* If you get the life of your amazon high, the life of the Decoy gets enormous, and as long as she is not poisoned, her life regeneration is insane.
* Casting cost is practically free.
* No casting delay. Spam it all you want.
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OldSoldier1
New member
Well done!
Slayer!
Poison Nova is now strong enough to mow down most crowds. I gave Frenzytaurs respect but otherwise just run into crowds and started spamming.
Lister's mob has very high resistance to poison: 95%! I separated them out mostly (one minion stuck with Lister and couldn't be cajoled out). Lower Resist + poison spam + golem recast was tricky because as soon as Gumby died, the goons ignored the merc and targeted me! I discovered that Decrepify (on top of golem slow) could shut them down completely, so I got into a decrep - nova - decrep - nova routine. Merc damage (upgraded Dimoak Hew) did as much if not more damage than the poison, things were slow but eventually the job was done.
I dropped to /p3 for Baal. Need not have bothered. I followed the same algorithm (decrep and nova ad infinitum) and the big guy was slowed enough not to do anything nasty. No clone, no clone barely any appendages (although a single nova gets rid of all of them) The occasional mana drain attack was annoying but he didn't get to cast it enough for it to be a problem. Ilzan didn't even die! The extra damage definitely helped finish the fight quicker.
Rubbish drops since my last update.
Slayer Hagar, level 48. Cows next.
I may park this character for a while and play my other tourney character (somewhere in act 1 hell; superuniques tourney) for a while.
Poison Nova is now strong enough to mow down most crowds. I gave Frenzytaurs respect but otherwise just run into crowds and started spamming.
Lister's mob has very high resistance to poison: 95%! I separated them out mostly (one minion stuck with Lister and couldn't be cajoled out). Lower Resist + poison spam + golem recast was tricky because as soon as Gumby died, the goons ignored the merc and targeted me! I discovered that Decrepify (on top of golem slow) could shut them down completely, so I got into a decrep - nova - decrep - nova routine. Merc damage (upgraded Dimoak Hew) did as much if not more damage than the poison, things were slow but eventually the job was done.
I dropped to /p3 for Baal. Need not have bothered. I followed the same algorithm (decrep and nova ad infinitum) and the big guy was slowed enough not to do anything nasty. No clone, no clone barely any appendages (although a single nova gets rid of all of them) The occasional mana drain attack was annoying but he didn't get to cast it enough for it to be a problem. Ilzan didn't even die! The extra damage definitely helped finish the fight quicker.
Rubbish drops since my last update.
Slayer Hagar, level 48. Cows next.
I may park this character for a while and play my other tourney character (somewhere in act 1 hell; superuniques tourney) for a while.
Woah! Another amazing Guardian, jiansonz! And I do love your writeups :nod:
Congrats Cygnus! We're dead even, it seems, as Meronym made Destroyer 2 days back
I don't remember much of Act III...and didn't take any screenshots, so perhaps it was boring...and I just noticed, my last status update was from 25th March, when I defeated Diablo, so you already heard my babbling about Act III and IV. Here's what happened in Act 5:
Bloody Foothills, first Catapult: Bummer! Nokozan Relic isn't usually something I put on as end game gear, but for untwinked play it's awesome: 50% Fire Resist (including 10% higher Max Resist) and 20% FHR was a welcome boost over .... no amulet at all!
Shadowfang was another good drop, which enabled me to finally switch merc again - I went with an Act 5 Barb from The Ancient's Way on (before, the Act III Cold Mage was much more handy against those Imps). Oh, and I upped Shadowfang to exceptional thanks to some amazing rune luck I had so far (of course, it's not of much use in this tournament...): Not only did I find the Sol required to up Shadowfang, but also Thul, 2 Shael, Amn, 2 Dol, plus a bunch of Runes below Thul...
Then I could increase the quality of my belt just in time before the fight against the Ancients with Sigon's Wrap, which complemented the earlier found Sigon's Gage just fine for 30% IAS
Baal himself had a mostly useless drop, but the Deathbit seems quite useful...granted, it doesn't have any inherent IAS, but LL and ML, so I don't need to gulp so much Mana pots anymore when using Phoenix Strike! Also, it offers more AR at the moment (388) than the partial set bonus from Isenhart's (240 - I'd need to be at least level 78 for that to change...), so that's a plus, too, although I lose the +8 to all resistances...but then I again, I can just switch back again the Isenhart's helm for my merc's Infernal Cranium!
Cow level held another surprise: I found Cow King's hide :crazyeyes: Wow, I only found 6 so far in total, and none while in a tournament...pretty good mods for untwinked play, but I'd rather have found the boots...
[highlight]Meronym, Level 48 Phoenix Striker, and Ethelred, the Barbarian merc, 13 S/U equipped, NM Rogue Camp next [/highlight]
Congrats Cygnus! We're dead even, it seems, as Meronym made Destroyer 2 days back
I don't remember much of Act III...and didn't take any screenshots, so perhaps it was boring...and I just noticed, my last status update was from 25th March, when I defeated Diablo, so you already heard my babbling about Act III and IV. Here's what happened in Act 5:
Bloody Foothills, first Catapult: Bummer! Nokozan Relic isn't usually something I put on as end game gear, but for untwinked play it's awesome: 50% Fire Resist (including 10% higher Max Resist) and 20% FHR was a welcome boost over .... no amulet at all!
Shadowfang was another good drop, which enabled me to finally switch merc again - I went with an Act 5 Barb from The Ancient's Way on (before, the Act III Cold Mage was much more handy against those Imps). Oh, and I upped Shadowfang to exceptional thanks to some amazing rune luck I had so far (of course, it's not of much use in this tournament...): Not only did I find the Sol required to up Shadowfang, but also Thul, 2 Shael, Amn, 2 Dol, plus a bunch of Runes below Thul...
Then I could increase the quality of my belt just in time before the fight against the Ancients with Sigon's Wrap, which complemented the earlier found Sigon's Gage just fine for 30% IAS
Baal himself had a mostly useless drop, but the Deathbit seems quite useful...granted, it doesn't have any inherent IAS, but LL and ML, so I don't need to gulp so much Mana pots anymore when using Phoenix Strike! Also, it offers more AR at the moment (388) than the partial set bonus from Isenhart's (240 - I'd need to be at least level 78 for that to change...), so that's a plus, too, although I lose the +8 to all resistances...but then I again, I can just switch back again the Isenhart's helm for my merc's Infernal Cranium!
Cow level held another surprise: I found Cow King's hide :crazyeyes: Wow, I only found 6 so far in total, and none while in a tournament...pretty good mods for untwinked play, but I'd rather have found the boots...
[highlight]Meronym, Level 48 Phoenix Striker, and Ethelred, the Barbarian merc, 13 S/U equipped, NM Rogue Camp next [/highlight]
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Way to go, jiansonz!
I am long overdue for a writeup, and I went through a few periods of little or no progress. I have few memories of recent exploits (and I do not take notes). Nevertheless, the project has gone ahead, and it is now time for a report.
Phusis the dark assassin has reached Act 5 Hell. Gameplay thus far has been slow but relatively safe. Primary skills include Shadow Master, Blade Fury, Cloak of Shadows, and Death Sentry. With good fire resistance and open wounds, Diablo was a pushover (if a tiresome one).
She is level 78. My plans are to cube some charms (and perhaps jewels), finalize equipment, respec for maximum stat point efficiency, and press forward.
I am considering switching my holy freeze mercenary for a blessed aim one, since AR might be more help to both of us than freezing (which is made somewhat redundant by CoS).
I am apprehensive about the Ancients -- they are tough, and isn't there a bug concerning some of the assassin skills when fighting them?
I will give a full report of my resistances and so forth after shuffling some things around.
Slow and steady, as they say...
[highlight]Phusis, level 78 BF assassin, and Leharas the desert mercenary, 15 S/Us equipped, Act 5 Hell next[/highlight]
I am long overdue for a writeup, and I went through a few periods of little or no progress. I have few memories of recent exploits (and I do not take notes). Nevertheless, the project has gone ahead, and it is now time for a report.
Phusis the dark assassin has reached Act 5 Hell. Gameplay thus far has been slow but relatively safe. Primary skills include Shadow Master, Blade Fury, Cloak of Shadows, and Death Sentry. With good fire resistance and open wounds, Diablo was a pushover (if a tiresome one).
She is level 78. My plans are to cube some charms (and perhaps jewels), finalize equipment, respec for maximum stat point efficiency, and press forward.
I am considering switching my holy freeze mercenary for a blessed aim one, since AR might be more help to both of us than freezing (which is made somewhat redundant by CoS).
I am apprehensive about the Ancients -- they are tough, and isn't there a bug concerning some of the assassin skills when fighting them?
I will give a full report of my resistances and so forth after shuffling some things around.
Slow and steady, as they say...
[highlight]Phusis, level 78 BF assassin, and Leharas the desert mercenary, 15 S/Us equipped, Act 5 Hell next[/highlight]
jiansonz
New member
Good luck in the final act!
Yes, on many game versions and system combos, the game crashes if you affect one of them with Cloak of Shadows. It happens when the CoS timer runs out. I usually take away my CoS hotkey for this fight. To prevent your SM from using it, I suggest you always summon her right next to an Ancient (and hope she does not use it during the small windows of time when she is not next to one).
Yes, on many game versions and system combos, the game crashes if you affect one of them with Cloak of Shadows. It happens when the CoS timer runs out. I usually take away my CoS hotkey for this fight. To prevent your SM from using it, I suggest you always summon her right next to an Ancient (and hope she does not use it during the small windows of time when she is not next to one).
Thanks for the information. :thumbsup:
Okay, after evaluating my options, thinking about it, playing a bit, thinking some more, and making some minor gear adjustments, here are Phusis' stats at the second waypoint of Act 5 Hell.
Name: Phusis
Level: 78
Stats: 129/95/236/25
Life: 1091
Mana: 192
Resistances: 123/42/71/45 (switch1), 108/27/96/30 (switch2)
DR: 14%
The first weapon switch is more offensively oriented (Baranar's Star w/ Cleg's Shield); the second is more defensively oriented (Fleshrender w/ Whitstan's Guard (50% block)).
Skills: blade fury (1), death sentry (20), shadow master (17), venom (20), fade (14), mind blast (1), cloak of shadows (3).
Mercenary: Bulwye the Barbarian (Blackhorn's Face, Spirit Forge, Doombringer).
Here's hoping for the best!
Okay, after evaluating my options, thinking about it, playing a bit, thinking some more, and making some minor gear adjustments, here are Phusis' stats at the second waypoint of Act 5 Hell.
Name: Phusis
Level: 78
Stats: 129/95/236/25
Life: 1091
Mana: 192
Resistances: 123/42/71/45 (switch1), 108/27/96/30 (switch2)
DR: 14%
The first weapon switch is more offensively oriented (Baranar's Star w/ Cleg's Shield); the second is more defensively oriented (Fleshrender w/ Whitstan's Guard (50% block)).
Skills: blade fury (1), death sentry (20), shadow master (17), venom (20), fade (14), mind blast (1), cloak of shadows (3).
Mercenary: Bulwye the Barbarian (Blackhorn's Face, Spirit Forge, Doombringer).
Here's hoping for the best!
So can I -- I haven't even tried it yet, because she found it just before I did the gear adjusting for the last post. I am looking forward to it, though; the desert mercenary was beginning to be quite frustrating.
The two other major changes were (a) the realization that Cleg's gloves give a great AR bonus if I use the shield, and (b) using Baranar's Star, which I am hoping speeds up the "first corpse" situation in most normal battles.
The two other major changes were (a) the realization that Cleg's gloves give a great AR bonus if I use the shield, and (b) using Baranar's Star, which I am hoping speeds up the "first corpse" situation in most normal battles.
When we left off, I was at the first WP of Act5 Hell. Act5 proved to be more challenging than previous acts, but this essentially meant gameplay was simply slow. My shadow and mercenary were both sturdy, so it was a matter of just picking off the baddies one at a time. The Ancients were tough, but after running around for ages trying to separate them, I managed to do so. At that point, I just whittled away with open wounds, recasting the shadow as necessary. I slipped through most of the act relatively quickly -- I killed everything in my way and within a certain range of my way (to be safe), but did not go out of my way to invite more combat. Once I entered the Worldstone Keep, the difficulty made another dramatic jump. The throne room (no stair trap) held bloodstar-shooters and meteor-throwers, which was at times quite hectic, and here I used more purple pots than anywhere else, but it was still just a matter of time. Baal's second wave was the most annoying -- skeletons would not explode (death sentry) if they were not within range of another enemy, which was tiresome, and poison took a toll on my minions. Nevertheless, none of that was a challenge compared to Baal himself. My God, was he pain. It took ages to slowly kill him with mercenary attacks and open wounds. Nevertheless, we prevailed.
It was a long road, but also a lot of fun. I had some lucky drops along the way, and jiansonz gave some good advice, as usual (many thanks). All told, I found 72 green and gold items. Thanks to everyone for their encouragement, and to Morathai for another great tournament.
My second guardian! Please see this thread for more information.
[highlight]Guardian Phusis, the level 79 Assassin, and Bulwye the Barbarian, Destroyers of Baal. 15 S/Us equipped. Fine food and drink next.[/highlight]
It was a long road, but also a lot of fun. I had some lucky drops along the way, and jiansonz gave some good advice, as usual (many thanks). All told, I found 72 green and gold items. Thanks to everyone for their encouragement, and to Morathai for another great tournament.
My second guardian! Please see this thread for more information.
[highlight]Guardian Phusis, the level 79 Assassin, and Bulwye the Barbarian, Destroyers of Baal. 15 S/Us equipped. Fine food and drink next.[/highlight]
endlesscircuit
New member
Figured I might as well start a character in this tournament as well, to give myself many different options to play.
I created Genie, the Amazon. So far, I've leveled her to 15, just finishing Tristram...and found...Hsarus' Iron Fist. Using an Ethereal Spear for hard monsters and Superior Javelins for the rest. Haven't committed to any skills yet, just adding 1 in each as I go along for maximum flexibility. (I also haven't played an Amazon in 4 years, so it's nice to experiment again.)
?Genie, Level 15 Amazon, Black Marsh, 1 S/U
EDIT: Just realized I can use 3 Chipped Topaz Ring Mail/2 Chipped Topaz Caps, for now. Put those on and found...Cleglaw's Claw. Meaning I must ditch the Ethereal Spear (only had 3 durability left anyway). Enjoying switching between this character and my random assassin.
I created Genie, the Amazon. So far, I've leveled her to 15, just finishing Tristram...and found...Hsarus' Iron Fist. Using an Ethereal Spear for hard monsters and Superior Javelins for the rest. Haven't committed to any skills yet, just adding 1 in each as I go along for maximum flexibility. (I also haven't played an Amazon in 4 years, so it's nice to experiment again.)
?Genie, Level 15 Amazon, Black Marsh, 1 S/U
EDIT: Just realized I can use 3 Chipped Topaz Ring Mail/2 Chipped Topaz Caps, for now. Put those on and found...Cleglaw's Claw. Meaning I must ditch the Ethereal Spear (only had 3 durability left anyway). Enjoying switching between this character and my random assassin.
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imakeigloospat
Member
Finally had some spare time from work. Loving this tournament! My phoenix striker just killed Baal at level 48. Updated my table. I haven't completed the Cow King quest yet so I will do that next time I play.
Code:
Name Character Class Diff. Area Level S/U's Equipped
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Archone Chicken Necromancer Completed 87 15
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jiansonz Martina Amazon NM Bloody Foothills 67 14
Kitteh Briony Assassin NM Inner Cloister 50 13
felixbavaria Bruno Druid NM Cold Plains 48 9
srrw Selene Sorceress NM Rogue Camp 48 11
jdkerr Phusis Assassin NM Rogue Camp 47 9
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
igloosPat Hennifer Assassin Normal Secret Cow Level 48 12
RIP Thor Paladin Normal Harrogath 35 11
Immortal_S GreenGoldie Paladin Normal Harrogath 34 8
Grisu Meronym Assassin Normal City of the Damned 33 9
Glenstorm Irene Assassin Normal Kurast Docks 27 3
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Tox FTW Oatmeal Paladin Normal Dry Hills 22 2
Jason Qirana Amazon Normal Rocky Waste 22 4
kestegs SankeEyes Sorceress Normal Lut Gholein 21 3
Morathi Yates Barbarian Normal Lut Gholein 20 0
Archone#2 Ms_Piggy Assassin Normal Lut Gholein 20 3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerametrius Passion Paladin Normal Lut Gholein 20 2
CDM BK Druid Normal Outer Cloister 17 2
kstarm Malice Necromancer Normal Outer Cloister 17 0
djmbbandie Rage Druid Normal Rogue Camp 1 0
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Kitteh Brydon Druid Normal Rogue Camp 1 0
Enceladus Vengence Paladin Normal Dry Hills 23 5
