Re: Tournament: The Randomly Challenged II
The rest of Act III was undramatic for Pete, with one major exception.
Well, maybe two, if you want to call
sheer stupidity vs. Riftwing 'dramatic'.
(that was from full life but with zero cold resist)
The first temple in the Bazaar had a crowded small first room. A spider pack, about 5 Wailing Beasts and a vampire. It did not get too dangerous because I had a resist poison shrine going, and I managed to create an opening further into the place with good use of Dim Vision and Terror.
Pete´s first major test in his journey happened in Forgotten Temple. Snakes in the first room. Lots of them. Plus beetles and an archer pack. The golem valiantly held the line (again, not getting knocked back by snakes is a great advantage) and I got one or two snakes bleeding from OW. But very soon, I understood I would not win this round. The Necromages I had brought with me lasted about five seconds in this mess. Pete could not find the time to do all four things he needed to stay safe: recast golem, recast Bone Armor, drink potions and keep up the cursing (DV, Terror). Also, Terror is not of much use when the place is cramped and there are many enemies.
I fled deeper into the dungeon. I lost some snakes, but others followed, as well as some beetles. I ran into more snakes, more beetles and more archers! This is bad. Very bad. I tried to get even further into the dungeon (hoping to reach bigger rooms) but got blocked, and Terror didn´t help because the "block" was several monsters deep. I cast one last Terror on my position, then TPed out. I licked my wounds, searched for corpses above ground to make mages from (found two) then went back through the portal. Fought some more, but very soon had to TP out again. I decided to try the stairs again, but made sure to keep the TP where it was, in case I needed it later.
The situation was WORSE in the stairs room. I figured that out after about two seconds. NO chance to win here! Got out again. Time to try something new. I brought the Teleporting staff. I know the layout of this type of temple; there is a large room just to the east of where my portal is. I took the portal back and blind-teleported one screen to the east.
Saved! :jig:
Me and the golem found a
nice situation against Mr. Sparkfist.
(Let me tell you, taking down these Council bosses took forever. Especially Toorc Icefist with his Stone Skin. Even while Amped, he lasted a long time.)
Took on Mephisto with 'weak Necromancer´s version of the Moat Trick'. Look at that
pile of sacrificed golems!
I figured Act IV was to be slow going, and I was right. There is a marked increase in monster life, at least for the beefier monster types. Doom Knights went down quite easily - they are undead (so the Flail does more damage to them) and not that sturdy, but those Venom Lords, oh my...
I did one thing very right before starting the Act, though. I put my +2 Bone Armor head on the switch (sold the Rainbow Large Shield of Deflecting I had there) and muled in my head with +2 Clay Golem, +2 Dim Vision and +1 Corpse Explosion. I must say that level 3 DV is about five times as useful as level 1 DV. 11 seconds duration and a radius large enough to hit a small pack with one casting.
(I also muled in Crushflange (found earlier in the act). It made the Izual fight not so tedious.)
One thing that worked much better than I had feared was to take on 2-3 Venom Lords. My beefier golem combined with another thing made this possible. I usually did not need to resummon the golem even against three Venom Lords. I have two cold damage charms (the cold damage is really just a side-effect on these charms; I wear them for their resists) and that slowing combined with the golem´s substantial slow effect made the demon´s Infernos a little funky. Quite often, the Infernos from a slowed Venom Lord seemed to fail to damage the golem.
Still, it was
really slow going. I estimate I spent a total of 6.5 hours clearing the outdoor areas. 2 for the Steppes, 3 for the Plains (spawners here. Ugh. I could not afford to Amp them - had to keep them Dimmed so I could get to them and bring them down without getting swarmed by Flesh Beasts.) and 1.5 for the City. Thankfully, wussy bats were the main critter type in the City.
Some new items:
* 36/27 Ruby Light Plated Boots of Luck, bought from Halbu
* 27% Coral Plated Belt, bought from Halbu
* 9/16 Rainbow Amulet of Fortune, gambled from Jamella.
Fire resist is now maxed, and Lightning is about 60.
Still no new skills. In one or two levels, I will likely have reached DEX 65. Then I will start shopping and gambling some Throwing Spears. One that does good damage seems to be a good ranged option against Amped monsters.
Far off in the distance, I can now begin to see my saviour: a burly lad with a big sword...
[Highlight]Pete the Necromancer, level 34, River of Flame next.[/Highlight]
but that is okay, I am sure I will make up for it!
