Wacky project: Gabrielle´s quest
- Thread starter jiansonz
- Start date
jiansonz
New member
G: "Ah. Show me, show me that again. Ow! Never say die; just, just one more time, one more time."
Ephiny: "Report?"
Eponin: "She’s not bad - a little rough."
G: "I’m getting the idea, though. You know, it’s pretty fun when it’s working."
Ephiny: "Fun? This fighting staff was my first weapon. My mother passed it on to me. It saved my life more than once.
Centaurs have certain strengths and weaknesses. They’re fast and agile. We use that to our advantage. As a centaur passes at full gallop, the staff goes here, to crack the knee at the joint. This splits the leg forward and drops him to the ground. As the centaur falls, a strike to the lower shoulder dislocates the two front legs. Once the centaur is on the ground, an overhead strike - (smacks a melon in a lot of squishy pieces) breaks the neck. Death is immediate - if they’re lucky.
Still fun?"
(Hooves and Harlots)
The fighting through the Catacombs can be summed up in one word: careful. That is going to be a trademark of this character. Dark Ones and their Shamen still died easily enough.
I have never had a character killed by Andariel and I was not going to let that happen to Gabrielle either. I had an ace up my sleeve for that fight. The Catacombs 2 waypoint was close to the stairs down and there was a Resist Poison shrine on Catacombs 3, very close to the stairs. In 1.10, those shrines are fantastic. You get actual immunity to poison from them.
Andariel is not all that scary without her posion. Gabrielle only need one Minor, one Light and one Healing potion, and finally a rejuve to secure the victory.
I could not end the session there, however. Gabrielle had a large heap of stuff stored on the ground and it would not fit into her inventory. Not by a long shot. I needed the Cube and I needed it NOW.
Run, run like the wind through the desert sands! Oh my, that´s a crapload of beetles! Ouch! Drink a healing, run, run, get the WP, run, run, duck into Halls of the Dead.
The fighting in the Halls was actually easier than I had expected. The Returned died from one or two whacks. The Hollow Ones got humiliated once I figured out the best way to fight them (and that didn´t take long). Run up to one, back off one step. At this distance, Gabrielle could still hit them but they could not hit her. She was also too close for them to shoot spiky balls. They ended up breathing poison. What happens then if they are Slow Missiled? The poison loses so much of its reach, it almost never hit Gabrielle! One of the nastiest creature types in act 2 as good as completely neutralized. Cool.
The bats are weak and the javelin kitties also get pretty easy with Slow Missiles. One obstacle left: Bloodwitch´s pack. Time to find a suitable doorway to meet them in. Bloodwitch herself came up first. Gabrielle whacked her for all she was worth, ready to quaff rejuves. She didn´t need to. Once Bloodwitch fell, I portalled out to heal the curse. Finally got the Cube.
More careful play in the Sewers. By the gods, how good Slow Missiles is against those fire archers! Without it, Gabrielle would have a Hades of a time to defeat them.
I found Radament early and lured out all the undead from his chamber. The lesser mummies have such bad eyesight and are just generally slow to react. Gabrielle had to hit most of them once to get them to chase her. After that, I cleared the rest of the floor and when I returned, all corpses from the undead I had lured away had disappeared.
Crazy Runner Guy, if you combine the lack of extra undead, the technique against greater mummies I described above and the fact that the Resist Poison shrine was still sitting pretty in Catacombs 3, what do you get? A Radament that will not manage to inflict a single point of damage to Gabrielle. I kid you not! It didn´t matter that she needed lots and lots of whacks to defeat him. The weirdest fight I´ve ever had against him, no doubt.
Then it got harder. Remember the beetles in the desert? It was time to take them on now. Slow Missiles is not bad against them. Often you can whack them once and get away from the sparks (the death sparks can´t be slowed, though). Gabrielle still has lousy resists since I am going mainly for MF equipment and have no gloves or shield. Sometimes I found a sweet spot, sometimes I just took the sparks damage and drank potions accordingly. If you follow the SPF tournaments, you will notice that many promising heroes get killed by beetle swarming. It is important to see the early signs of an imminent rush attack. How many are awake? Will they block each other when they rush? Can you get shelter from around a wall? And so on.
Gabrielle got through all the beetles (and kitties, vultures and leapers, but they were wussies compared to the beetles) in Rocky Waste and Dry Hills. It was time to end the session, but Gabrielle was ONE lousy monster kill away from level 19. I really wanted to try out her new staff, so I pressed on into Far Oasis.
The new weapon is a Superior (+15% damage, takes the damage from 6-13 to 6-14. Whoppie...) Battle Staff with three sockets (Thanks, Drognan!). I decided to go straight from a Short Staff to a Battle Staff. Battle Staves have a speed of 0 even though they are listed as "slow". Gnarled Staves are slower (10).
The first socket got filled by the Ral rune from the Countess. What an improvement! Gabrielle had found a cold damage charm so there was no real need for that on the staff anymore. Travelling through Far Oasis, she found two more items to fill the staff with. First, a chipped emerald I could cube all the way up to Emerald. Then an Eld rune. The staff now does 6-14 damage with an extra +125% damage to undead. Add some strength bonus and a decent chance to do Critical Strikes. Undead, beware! The poison allowed Gabrielle to kill most enemies in one hit and some waiting.
Wolfgang Abentauer, Beetleburst was absolutely no problem. Gabrielle had already fought CE beetles, LE beetles and Mighty beetles. A puny Magic Resistant beetle pack was no match for her, especially with her new and improved weapon.
I always love finding rare jewels. They are really exciting to identify. The one Gabrielle found in the Maggot Lair is clearly the best I have seen this early in the game. How about this:
* 14% fire resist
* +4 max damage
* +20 poison damage over 2 seconds
* +25 stamina
After the Maggot Lair was cleared (more of those damned beetles. Sigh.), I felt the need for a new armor. I managed to score a 2-socketed Superior (+10% ED) Studded Leather at Elzix´ shop. I added a +7 max damage, +18 defense jewel in addition to the rare one and that resulted in this:
Superior Studded Leather
* 57 Defense (that is almost Breast Plate territory!)
* 14% fire resist
* +11 max damage
* +20 poison damage over 2 seconds
* +25 stamina
Not a bad piece of fabric for mid act 2 Normal, eh?
That poison damage stacks nicely with the 40 over 5 on the staff and the 6 over 3 Small Charm. However, Gabrielle were to discover a much better weapon in the next session. It took her (read: me) a little while to realize it was sitting right in from of her...
To be continued...
Ephiny: "Report?"
Eponin: "She’s not bad - a little rough."
G: "I’m getting the idea, though. You know, it’s pretty fun when it’s working."
Ephiny: "Fun? This fighting staff was my first weapon. My mother passed it on to me. It saved my life more than once.
Centaurs have certain strengths and weaknesses. They’re fast and agile. We use that to our advantage. As a centaur passes at full gallop, the staff goes here, to crack the knee at the joint. This splits the leg forward and drops him to the ground. As the centaur falls, a strike to the lower shoulder dislocates the two front legs. Once the centaur is on the ground, an overhead strike - (smacks a melon in a lot of squishy pieces) breaks the neck. Death is immediate - if they’re lucky.
Still fun?"
(Hooves and Harlots)
The fighting through the Catacombs can be summed up in one word: careful. That is going to be a trademark of this character. Dark Ones and their Shamen still died easily enough.
I have never had a character killed by Andariel and I was not going to let that happen to Gabrielle either. I had an ace up my sleeve for that fight. The Catacombs 2 waypoint was close to the stairs down and there was a Resist Poison shrine on Catacombs 3, very close to the stairs. In 1.10, those shrines are fantastic. You get actual immunity to poison from them.
Andariel is not all that scary without her posion. Gabrielle only need one Minor, one Light and one Healing potion, and finally a rejuve to secure the victory.
I could not end the session there, however. Gabrielle had a large heap of stuff stored on the ground and it would not fit into her inventory. Not by a long shot. I needed the Cube and I needed it NOW.
Run, run like the wind through the desert sands! Oh my, that´s a crapload of beetles! Ouch! Drink a healing, run, run, get the WP, run, run, duck into Halls of the Dead.
The fighting in the Halls was actually easier than I had expected. The Returned died from one or two whacks. The Hollow Ones got humiliated once I figured out the best way to fight them (and that didn´t take long). Run up to one, back off one step. At this distance, Gabrielle could still hit them but they could not hit her. She was also too close for them to shoot spiky balls. They ended up breathing poison. What happens then if they are Slow Missiled? The poison loses so much of its reach, it almost never hit Gabrielle! One of the nastiest creature types in act 2 as good as completely neutralized. Cool.
The bats are weak and the javelin kitties also get pretty easy with Slow Missiles. One obstacle left: Bloodwitch´s pack. Time to find a suitable doorway to meet them in. Bloodwitch herself came up first. Gabrielle whacked her for all she was worth, ready to quaff rejuves. She didn´t need to. Once Bloodwitch fell, I portalled out to heal the curse. Finally got the Cube.
More careful play in the Sewers. By the gods, how good Slow Missiles is against those fire archers! Without it, Gabrielle would have a Hades of a time to defeat them.
I found Radament early and lured out all the undead from his chamber. The lesser mummies have such bad eyesight and are just generally slow to react. Gabrielle had to hit most of them once to get them to chase her. After that, I cleared the rest of the floor and when I returned, all corpses from the undead I had lured away had disappeared.
Crazy Runner Guy, if you combine the lack of extra undead, the technique against greater mummies I described above and the fact that the Resist Poison shrine was still sitting pretty in Catacombs 3, what do you get? A Radament that will not manage to inflict a single point of damage to Gabrielle. I kid you not! It didn´t matter that she needed lots and lots of whacks to defeat him. The weirdest fight I´ve ever had against him, no doubt.
Then it got harder. Remember the beetles in the desert? It was time to take them on now. Slow Missiles is not bad against them. Often you can whack them once and get away from the sparks (the death sparks can´t be slowed, though). Gabrielle still has lousy resists since I am going mainly for MF equipment and have no gloves or shield. Sometimes I found a sweet spot, sometimes I just took the sparks damage and drank potions accordingly. If you follow the SPF tournaments, you will notice that many promising heroes get killed by beetle swarming. It is important to see the early signs of an imminent rush attack. How many are awake? Will they block each other when they rush? Can you get shelter from around a wall? And so on.
Gabrielle got through all the beetles (and kitties, vultures and leapers, but they were wussies compared to the beetles) in Rocky Waste and Dry Hills. It was time to end the session, but Gabrielle was ONE lousy monster kill away from level 19. I really wanted to try out her new staff, so I pressed on into Far Oasis.
The new weapon is a Superior (+15% damage, takes the damage from 6-13 to 6-14. Whoppie...) Battle Staff with three sockets (Thanks, Drognan!). I decided to go straight from a Short Staff to a Battle Staff. Battle Staves have a speed of 0 even though they are listed as "slow". Gnarled Staves are slower (10).
The first socket got filled by the Ral rune from the Countess. What an improvement! Gabrielle had found a cold damage charm so there was no real need for that on the staff anymore. Travelling through Far Oasis, she found two more items to fill the staff with. First, a chipped emerald I could cube all the way up to Emerald. Then an Eld rune. The staff now does 6-14 damage with an extra +125% damage to undead. Add some strength bonus and a decent chance to do Critical Strikes. Undead, beware! The poison allowed Gabrielle to kill most enemies in one hit and some waiting.
Wolfgang Abentauer, Beetleburst was absolutely no problem. Gabrielle had already fought CE beetles, LE beetles and Mighty beetles. A puny Magic Resistant beetle pack was no match for her, especially with her new and improved weapon.
I always love finding rare jewels. They are really exciting to identify. The one Gabrielle found in the Maggot Lair is clearly the best I have seen this early in the game. How about this:
* 14% fire resist
* +4 max damage
* +20 poison damage over 2 seconds
* +25 stamina
After the Maggot Lair was cleared (more of those damned beetles. Sigh.), I felt the need for a new armor. I managed to score a 2-socketed Superior (+10% ED) Studded Leather at Elzix´ shop. I added a +7 max damage, +18 defense jewel in addition to the rare one and that resulted in this:
Superior Studded Leather
* 57 Defense (that is almost Breast Plate territory!)
* 14% fire resist
* +11 max damage
* +20 poison damage over 2 seconds
* +25 stamina
Not a bad piece of fabric for mid act 2 Normal, eh?
That poison damage stacks nicely with the 40 over 5 on the staff and the 6 over 3 Small Charm. However, Gabrielle were to discover a much better weapon in the next session. It took her (read: me) a little while to realize it was sitting right in from of her...
To be continued...
Excellent read so far, Jiansonz. I typically have a little difficulty following this sort of thread since they tend to be a little too heavy on the story (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and I don't get enough of a feel for the gameplay behind it. You seem to have struck the perfect balance between a little bit of an introductory story and then some exposition on your session, challenges and so on. Definitely a little easier to read, especially after one's brain has been fried after a hard day at the office. :thumbsup:
I'd love to try a themed character at some point and I have some in mind which I will no doubt detail in a thread at some point down the line. Until then, keep up the good work. You, AE and all the others who play tough themed characters (JohnnyBravo's amazon also springs to mind at the moment) continue to be a source of inspiration for the rest of us.
I'll keep checking back here to follow Gabrielle's adventures.
I'd love to try a themed character at some point and I have some in mind which I will no doubt detail in a thread at some point down the line. Until then, keep up the good work. You, AE and all the others who play tough themed characters (JohnnyBravo's amazon also springs to mind at the moment) continue to be a source of inspiration for the rest of us.
I'll keep checking back here to follow Gabrielle's adventures.
Good going!
This is a very interesting thread!
Well, I actually think that it is possible to make it to hell!!
Normal and nightmare isnt that hard. The only real problem would be diablo in normal and ancients in nightmare. If you can somehow find your way there. there
Good luck!
This is a very interesting thread!
Well, I actually think that it is possible to make it to hell!!
Normal and nightmare isnt that hard. The only real problem would be diablo in normal and ancients in nightmare. If you can somehow find your way there. there
Good luck!
Wolfgang Abenteuer
New member
Woo, I'm happy to hear I was mistaken!
Keep up the good work, jiansonz!
~Wolfgang
Keep up the good work, jiansonz!
~Wolfgang
Almighty Cow
New member
Hmm, better weapon, eh? The Horadric Staff, maybe?
Keep it up, this is a great read! :thumbsup:
Keep it up, this is a great read! :thumbsup:
jiansonz
New member
X: “No, you are *not* getting off- your ankle’s too swollen.â€
G: “I’m telling you Xena-- this sprain is not *half* as bad as the last one.â€
X: “The less you’re on it, the faster it’ll heal. Besides, when we hook up with Joxer we’ll stop and make camp. It’s not like him to be late.â€
G: “What do to want to bet that he stopped to watch the paint dry-- or the grass grow-- and he *completely* forgot-- Believe me, I know Joxer almost as well as I know you.â€
X: “And how well is *that*?â€
G: “Well enough to know what you’re thinking most of the time. Like right now, you’re thinking, ‘She thinks she knows me, huh? We’ll see about that.’â€
X: “Easy guess.â€
G: “OK. Now you’re thinking, ‘Oh, wait-- I haven’t thought of anything yet!’ Right?â€
X: “And what am I thinking *now*?†(turns to Gabrielle with a sly grin)
G: “You wouldn’t dare-- not to an *injured* woman.â€
/(King Con)
Almighty Cow (lovely nickname!), your suggestion is correct. Having fought a bit in the Lost City, I returned to town to sell stuff. When I moved things around in the stash, I realized that Gabrielle actually had a STAFF of Kings in there and decided to take a look at it. Hmm, 10% resist all, nice. Better base damage (10-15) than her current staff and WOW, 50% IAS!
That thing is a beast. Clearing the City, Ancient Tunnels and Claw Viper Temple was quite easy. The worst part was getting slowed by snakes. After a while, I got better at landing the first hit and avoiding being chilled. There was a very convenient Resist Lightning Shrine very close to the Lost City waypoint, which helped a lot against Fangskin.
The staff got even better when transmuted with the Viper Amulet. 12-20 base damage, an extra +25% posion resistance and +10 Life.
I had taken Gabrielle´s strength to 41 in anticipation of switching to a Full Helm with flawed topazes. Until now, Gabrielle had been useing a 2-chipped-topazed Helm she bought from Salmoneus...uh...Gheed, I mean.
Then I gambled a Circlet of Luck that was better than such a helm, both in terms of MF and Defense: 29 for both.
I have added some dexterity. The vendors start selling Throwing Spears in act 4 and those require 65 DEX. That seems to be a reasonable goal for Gabrielle. Getting some decent DEX will also allow Penetrate to have some more basic Attack Rating to work with.
Another good gamble: rare boots with MF and the Frost Shield ability (chance to cast lvl 3 Frost Nova when struck). Gabrielle gets hit a lot and those Frost Novas are good crowd control with the chilling that lasts 10 seconds. Crafted Hitpower gear looks good, it always has this ability. Especially the weapon recipe looks yummy.
If Gabrielle makes it to late Normal/early Nightmare, prepare to see a lot of crafted exceptional staves. Gabrielle and I will yearn for the shiny blue gems that will probabaly be the bottleneck for this crafting.
There is not much to say about most of the remaining parts of act 2. It was a steady ride. One-hit kills most of the time. Palace was actually harder than the rest, because of the archers and cold mages.
The SOP against greater mummies was of course working on the Unravelers as well. To stay safe, I strayed from that method agaÃnst Ancient Kaa. I threw javelins against him. He´s easy to hit because he doesn´t move around much.
Duriel.
I did not look forward to this fight. Not only is he nasty, but I also had to give up Gabrielle´s awesome staff to get to him.
I had pumped Dodge quite a bit, so Gabrielle has over 40% chance to Dodge now. I had managed to gamble a rare circlet (aptly named Death Circlet) with the Fiery ability (very good fire damage for this stage of the game).
There was a Resist Cold shrine a bit inside Kaa´s tomb, so I activated that for the first round of the fight. The following rounds, I used Thawing Potions to get the same effect. Duriel only did really scary damage when Gabrielle´s cold resistance was low, so with determination and many town trips, Gabrielle could slowly defeat Duriel. Her large amount of life turned out to be the deciding factor in this fight. Underpowered HC characters should definately pump vitality quite a bit already in the first two acts.
Onwards to my favourite act now. Like AlterEgo said, that should not be much trouble if I am careful. By the way, AE, how´s Gaby doing?
G: “I’m telling you Xena-- this sprain is not *half* as bad as the last one.â€
X: “The less you’re on it, the faster it’ll heal. Besides, when we hook up with Joxer we’ll stop and make camp. It’s not like him to be late.â€
G: “What do to want to bet that he stopped to watch the paint dry-- or the grass grow-- and he *completely* forgot-- Believe me, I know Joxer almost as well as I know you.â€
X: “And how well is *that*?â€
G: “Well enough to know what you’re thinking most of the time. Like right now, you’re thinking, ‘She thinks she knows me, huh? We’ll see about that.’â€
X: “Easy guess.â€
G: “OK. Now you’re thinking, ‘Oh, wait-- I haven’t thought of anything yet!’ Right?â€
X: “And what am I thinking *now*?†(turns to Gabrielle with a sly grin)
G: “You wouldn’t dare-- not to an *injured* woman.â€
/(King Con)
Almighty Cow (lovely nickname!), your suggestion is correct. Having fought a bit in the Lost City, I returned to town to sell stuff. When I moved things around in the stash, I realized that Gabrielle actually had a STAFF of Kings in there and decided to take a look at it. Hmm, 10% resist all, nice. Better base damage (10-15) than her current staff and WOW, 50% IAS!
That thing is a beast. Clearing the City, Ancient Tunnels and Claw Viper Temple was quite easy. The worst part was getting slowed by snakes. After a while, I got better at landing the first hit and avoiding being chilled. There was a very convenient Resist Lightning Shrine very close to the Lost City waypoint, which helped a lot against Fangskin.
The staff got even better when transmuted with the Viper Amulet. 12-20 base damage, an extra +25% posion resistance and +10 Life.
I had taken Gabrielle´s strength to 41 in anticipation of switching to a Full Helm with flawed topazes. Until now, Gabrielle had been useing a 2-chipped-topazed Helm she bought from Salmoneus...uh...Gheed, I mean.
Then I gambled a Circlet of Luck that was better than such a helm, both in terms of MF and Defense: 29 for both.
I have added some dexterity. The vendors start selling Throwing Spears in act 4 and those require 65 DEX. That seems to be a reasonable goal for Gabrielle. Getting some decent DEX will also allow Penetrate to have some more basic Attack Rating to work with.
Another good gamble: rare boots with MF and the Frost Shield ability (chance to cast lvl 3 Frost Nova when struck). Gabrielle gets hit a lot and those Frost Novas are good crowd control with the chilling that lasts 10 seconds. Crafted Hitpower gear looks good, it always has this ability. Especially the weapon recipe looks yummy.
If Gabrielle makes it to late Normal/early Nightmare, prepare to see a lot of crafted exceptional staves. Gabrielle and I will yearn for the shiny blue gems that will probabaly be the bottleneck for this crafting.There is not much to say about most of the remaining parts of act 2. It was a steady ride. One-hit kills most of the time. Palace was actually harder than the rest, because of the archers and cold mages.
The SOP against greater mummies was of course working on the Unravelers as well. To stay safe, I strayed from that method agaÃnst Ancient Kaa. I threw javelins against him. He´s easy to hit because he doesn´t move around much.
Duriel.
I did not look forward to this fight. Not only is he nasty, but I also had to give up Gabrielle´s awesome staff to get to him.
I had pumped Dodge quite a bit, so Gabrielle has over 40% chance to Dodge now. I had managed to gamble a rare circlet (aptly named Death Circlet) with the Fiery ability (very good fire damage for this stage of the game).
There was a Resist Cold shrine a bit inside Kaa´s tomb, so I activated that for the first round of the fight. The following rounds, I used Thawing Potions to get the same effect. Duriel only did really scary damage when Gabrielle´s cold resistance was low, so with determination and many town trips, Gabrielle could slowly defeat Duriel. Her large amount of life turned out to be the deciding factor in this fight. Underpowered HC characters should definately pump vitality quite a bit already in the first two acts.
Onwards to my favourite act now. Like AlterEgo said, that should not be much trouble if I am careful. By the way, AE, how´s Gaby doing?
Great work jiansonz. Good luck in A3 :clap:
Gaby has moved through much of Act 1, and is poised to attack the Cathedral @ lvl16. Not much exciting has happened, except for a few NDEs while being attacked by multiple CE skeli-archers, and then Foulspawn's CE pack
She's switched to a gnarled staff with 3 chipped rubies - fire damage in anticipation of the battle with Andy. The staff is slower, but really dishes out much more damage.
I know the rules say Gaby can throw javalins (while clicking on the ground), but I just can't get myself to do that. Gaby will only fight in two modes - staff or firey potion. So far she has yet to need the potions, but they will certainly be pulled out against Andariel. We've saved up[ quite a pile.
Not as well as Gabrielle I'm afraid. I've made a few minor mistakes in her build so far, but should recover. Also haven't played her too much, but do have an update...jiansonz said:
Gaby has moved through much of Act 1, and is poised to attack the Cathedral @ lvl16. Not much exciting has happened, except for a few NDEs while being attacked by multiple CE skeli-archers, and then Foulspawn's CE pack
She's switched to a gnarled staff with 3 chipped rubies - fire damage in anticipation of the battle with Andy. The staff is slower, but really dishes out much more damage.I know the rules say Gaby can throw javalins (while clicking on the ground), but I just can't get myself to do that. Gaby will only fight in two modes - staff or firey potion. So far she has yet to need the potions, but they will certainly be pulled out against Andariel. We've saved up[ quite a pile.
jiansonz
New member
X: "-- the next bad guy we come across is all yours. The next seven *little* bad guys we come across-- they're all yours."
G: "'Little?' Is that a crack about my height?"
X: "No-- they're just harder for me to reach." (chuckles)
G: "Yeah. Well, I guess that makes sense."
X: "Yeah."
G: "Good strategy. Yep."
/(Succession)
And little guys they were! With large knives and teeth and lots of yelling, they attacked Gabrielle through the entire Kurast jungles. All the three first areas had the flayer shaman combination packs (shaman + melee warriors + blowdarters). The Flayer Jungle also had lots of meleers in packs of 8. I found out the hard way that it´s advisable to not wake up two entire such packs at once, unless you like to run a lot.
I got a bit frustrated but it was just a matter of adjusting. I stopped hitting them more than once. The poison damage from armor + staff was enough to finish them in one hit over 95% of the time. That gave me some more time for tactical movement and Tempting Fate (you move away just when a monster tries to hit and that movement makes them miss, and you can then counterattack without being interrupted). Flayers run quickly but their attack animation is actually quite slow and they often do nothing for a couple of seconds if you Tempt them.
The same tactics applied to the shamen with the addition of Slow Missiles. If they are under effect of that and Gabrielle moves away to maximum staff range (a movent I have become an expert with by now) they can´t hit her with their Infernos. This means Witch Doctor Endugu got owned as well. The pack is much less dangerous in 1.10 because only Endugu himself has a flamethrower.
To stay safe, Gabrielle gave Sszark the javelin treatment.
I dreaded Stormtree but Gabrielle found a sweet spot right away and could finish him without a scare.
The Kurast City areas played smoothly for the most part. I managed to separate Sarina´s pack into three units and blocked each one of them in the narrow doorway and smacked them silly.
Then a disaster struck in the Ruined Fane on the Causeway. That is almost always the smallest and easiest of the six temples. Not so now, at least not for this character. Gabrielle got serially Charged into a corner by a Serpent Magus and surrounded by three snakes and three bats. Her lightning resistance is quite good but that didn´t matter. She was constantly chilled and moved like in syryp. She could hardly get any whacks to connect because she got into Dodge and hit recovery the whole time. Rejuve after rejuve got drunk and she made absolutely NO progress. I figured if I could only kill one or two enemies, she might be able to break free. Alas, she could not even kill one. After the final rejuve got used, I did what I had to do: Save and Exit.
One S&E used, two (or three) to go. A bit discouraging, as I had not expected to be forced to use one this early. This highlights the worst problem for this character. Six freakin´ NORMAL enemies just owned her when she got chilled and surrounded. There is a place in late Normal which I think will be very difficult that nobody has mentioned yet...
I got an idea for later. Maybe Gabrielle should have a staff with the Wailing ability (100% Monster Flee) on switch and store her javelins in inventory? She´s rarely in a hurry when she wants the javelins.
The final part of the act was intense but not too dangerous. Bremm Sparkfist decided for the "D2 classic" approach: LE + Blessed Aim. Piece of cake. Mephisto provided a tough fight but nowhere near as tough as the one with Duriel.
Thank the gods for the +1 vitality = +3 life ability of amazons!
to be continued...
G: "'Little?' Is that a crack about my height?"
X: "No-- they're just harder for me to reach." (chuckles)
G: "Yeah. Well, I guess that makes sense."
X: "Yeah."
G: "Good strategy. Yep."
/(Succession)
And little guys they were! With large knives and teeth and lots of yelling, they attacked Gabrielle through the entire Kurast jungles. All the three first areas had the flayer shaman combination packs (shaman + melee warriors + blowdarters). The Flayer Jungle also had lots of meleers in packs of 8. I found out the hard way that it´s advisable to not wake up two entire such packs at once, unless you like to run a lot.
I got a bit frustrated but it was just a matter of adjusting. I stopped hitting them more than once. The poison damage from armor + staff was enough to finish them in one hit over 95% of the time. That gave me some more time for tactical movement and Tempting Fate (you move away just when a monster tries to hit and that movement makes them miss, and you can then counterattack without being interrupted). Flayers run quickly but their attack animation is actually quite slow and they often do nothing for a couple of seconds if you Tempt them.
The same tactics applied to the shamen with the addition of Slow Missiles. If they are under effect of that and Gabrielle moves away to maximum staff range (a movent I have become an expert with by now) they can´t hit her with their Infernos. This means Witch Doctor Endugu got owned as well. The pack is much less dangerous in 1.10 because only Endugu himself has a flamethrower.
To stay safe, Gabrielle gave Sszark the javelin treatment.
I dreaded Stormtree but Gabrielle found a sweet spot right away and could finish him without a scare.
The Kurast City areas played smoothly for the most part. I managed to separate Sarina´s pack into three units and blocked each one of them in the narrow doorway and smacked them silly.
Then a disaster struck in the Ruined Fane on the Causeway. That is almost always the smallest and easiest of the six temples. Not so now, at least not for this character. Gabrielle got serially Charged into a corner by a Serpent Magus and surrounded by three snakes and three bats. Her lightning resistance is quite good but that didn´t matter. She was constantly chilled and moved like in syryp. She could hardly get any whacks to connect because she got into Dodge and hit recovery the whole time. Rejuve after rejuve got drunk and she made absolutely NO progress. I figured if I could only kill one or two enemies, she might be able to break free. Alas, she could not even kill one. After the final rejuve got used, I did what I had to do: Save and Exit.
One S&E used, two (or three) to go. A bit discouraging, as I had not expected to be forced to use one this early. This highlights the worst problem for this character. Six freakin´ NORMAL enemies just owned her when she got chilled and surrounded. There is a place in late Normal which I think will be very difficult that nobody has mentioned yet...
I got an idea for later. Maybe Gabrielle should have a staff with the Wailing ability (100% Monster Flee) on switch and store her javelins in inventory? She´s rarely in a hurry when she wants the javelins.
The final part of the act was intense but not too dangerous. Bremm Sparkfist decided for the "D2 classic" approach: LE + Blessed Aim. Piece of cake. Mephisto provided a tough fight but nowhere near as tough as the one with Duriel.
Thank the gods for the +1 vitality = +3 life ability of amazons!
to be continued...
jiansonz
New member
(Gabrielle sits in a tavern ready to write a bit on a scroll before meeting up with Xena. Suddely, a splash of water hits her and the scroll)
G: “Did you throw that?â€
Tara: “Yeah.â€
G: “What’s your problem?â€
Tara: “Your face.â€
G: “Then don’t look at it."
(Gabrielle continues to write on the scroll but gets some gruel thrown onto her.)
G: "Look-- if you don’t like the food, may I suggest you find some other way to express it.â€
Tara: “What kind of wimp are you?! I just threw a plate of gruel on you, and all you do is talk! You and I are gonna settle this right here.â€
G: “Look-- I think you have me confused with somebody else.â€
Tara: “Yeah, you wish.†(gives Gabrielle a not-so-nice push)
G: “I don’t know what’s bothering you-- but I have no intention
of fighting.â€
Tara: “I think you’re a coward.â€
G: “Well, I don’t care what you think.â€
(Big fat barroom brawl follows)
/(Forgiven)
Gabrielle was in Hell for the larger part of that episode. In the game however, Hell (Act 4) wasn´t all that hellish for Gabrielle.
The Cliff Lurkers provided some hectic fighting. It was best to pin them against an obstacle and wear them down. The large damage bonus vs. undead on the staff was useful against the Doom Knights. Still, Gabrielle had to be careful not to take on more than a few of those at a time. They hurt!
Her flayer shaman tactics worked fabulously well against the Venom Lords. Under the influence of Slow Missiles, their Infernos got reduced to some "party trick" variant of firebreathing, and that puny little fire cloud had too short a reach to be dangerous if Gabrielle managed to make her "get to max staff range" maneuver.
The worst monster type in the the act was the spawners. Even though the pups died in 1-2 hits (1 hit + poison, or 2), they spawned fast and the staff is pretty slow. Often I had to back off, lead away and kill the pups before assaulting the mother again.
I found an Ort on the Plains of Despair and shortly after that, Jamella sold a real gem to Gabrielle: an Artisan´s Battle Staff of Alacrity. Same base damage as her current staff, same number of sockets, but faster. I shoved in the Ort and an Ith (+9 max damage). That was a much better weapon!
Hephasto required a couple of potions but fell surprisingly quickly.
The Chaos Sanctuary...
This is where AlterEgo predicted that our amazons would meet their destiny. Did that bother Gabrielle? No way! Storm Casters are wimps and Gabrielle laughs at mana drain if no nasty ranged enemies are near. I already told you about the succesful Venom Lord tactics. I portalled away from the Infector´s seal and could draw them out a few at the time. The Infector himself got more or less owned. What a confidence boost!
Then there were the undead knights and mages. Lots of guerilla warfare and luring against the knigths. I mostly used some Fiery Pilums of Excellence (fire damage +8 minimum damage) against the Oblivion Knights. Not because I was particularly afraid of Iron Maiden (low damage on the staff, it´s mostly elemental) but because it was annoying to fight while Decrepified. Throwing 2-3 Pilums and dodging shots was much more convenient.
I bought a Crimson Belt (19%) and strapped on Sander´s Riprap and the Death Circlet (fire damage and +36 life) for the Diablo fight. I used the Pilums in that fight. Lots of Pilums. Lots and lots and LOTS of Pilums! There are only 40 in the pack. Diablo is hard to hit because he has a high level and very good blocking/avoid/whatever. On top of that, I had my "shift-clicking-on-ground" rule to consider as well so many throws whiffed past Diablo. Many many town trips to repair the Pilums. Even though I consider them to be a very good pack of Pilums, the repair cost was very low, less than 100 gold. Eventually, Diablo had had enough and burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp (oops, wrong movie!).
to be continued...
G: “Did you throw that?â€
Tara: “Yeah.â€
G: “What’s your problem?â€
Tara: “Your face.â€
G: “Then don’t look at it."
(Gabrielle continues to write on the scroll but gets some gruel thrown onto her.)
G: "Look-- if you don’t like the food, may I suggest you find some other way to express it.â€
Tara: “What kind of wimp are you?! I just threw a plate of gruel on you, and all you do is talk! You and I are gonna settle this right here.â€
G: “Look-- I think you have me confused with somebody else.â€
Tara: “Yeah, you wish.†(gives Gabrielle a not-so-nice push)
G: “I don’t know what’s bothering you-- but I have no intention
of fighting.â€
Tara: “I think you’re a coward.â€
G: “Well, I don’t care what you think.â€
(Big fat barroom brawl follows)
/(Forgiven)
Gabrielle was in Hell for the larger part of that episode. In the game however, Hell (Act 4) wasn´t all that hellish for Gabrielle.
The Cliff Lurkers provided some hectic fighting. It was best to pin them against an obstacle and wear them down. The large damage bonus vs. undead on the staff was useful against the Doom Knights. Still, Gabrielle had to be careful not to take on more than a few of those at a time. They hurt!
Her flayer shaman tactics worked fabulously well against the Venom Lords. Under the influence of Slow Missiles, their Infernos got reduced to some "party trick" variant of firebreathing, and that puny little fire cloud had too short a reach to be dangerous if Gabrielle managed to make her "get to max staff range" maneuver.
The worst monster type in the the act was the spawners. Even though the pups died in 1-2 hits (1 hit + poison, or 2), they spawned fast and the staff is pretty slow. Often I had to back off, lead away and kill the pups before assaulting the mother again.
I found an Ort on the Plains of Despair and shortly after that, Jamella sold a real gem to Gabrielle: an Artisan´s Battle Staff of Alacrity. Same base damage as her current staff, same number of sockets, but faster. I shoved in the Ort and an Ith (+9 max damage). That was a much better weapon!
Hephasto required a couple of potions but fell surprisingly quickly.
The Chaos Sanctuary...
This is where AlterEgo predicted that our amazons would meet their destiny. Did that bother Gabrielle? No way! Storm Casters are wimps and Gabrielle laughs at mana drain if no nasty ranged enemies are near. I already told you about the succesful Venom Lord tactics. I portalled away from the Infector´s seal and could draw them out a few at the time. The Infector himself got more or less owned. What a confidence boost!
Then there were the undead knights and mages. Lots of guerilla warfare and luring against the knigths. I mostly used some Fiery Pilums of Excellence (fire damage +8 minimum damage) against the Oblivion Knights. Not because I was particularly afraid of Iron Maiden (low damage on the staff, it´s mostly elemental) but because it was annoying to fight while Decrepified. Throwing 2-3 Pilums and dodging shots was much more convenient.
I bought a Crimson Belt (19%) and strapped on Sander´s Riprap and the Death Circlet (fire damage and +36 life) for the Diablo fight. I used the Pilums in that fight. Lots of Pilums. Lots and lots and LOTS of Pilums! There are only 40 in the pack. Diablo is hard to hit because he has a high level and very good blocking/avoid/whatever. On top of that, I had my "shift-clicking-on-ground" rule to consider as well so many throws whiffed past Diablo. Many many town trips to repair the Pilums. Even though I consider them to be a very good pack of Pilums, the repair cost was very low, less than 100 gold. Eventually, Diablo had had enough and burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp (oops, wrong movie!).
to be continued...
jiansonz
New member
Petracles: “Why do you keep looking at me?â€
G: “Xena told me never to turn my back on you.â€
Petracles: “She really hates me, doesn’t she?â€
G: “Hate’s a pretty strong word-- but it might be the right one.â€
Petracles: “But not you.â€
G: “I don’t know you-- only what I’ve been told.â€
Petracles: “And that is?â€
G: “That you’re a bloodthirsty warlord-- who doesn’t care about anything or anyone but yourself. You’d sooner sell out your soul for a profit than keep an honest promise. That kind of stuff.â€
Petracles: “Well, thanks for being up front. But, as far as the bloodthirsty warlord bit, mmm-- not quite.â€
G: “What about the villagers you were threatening?â€
Petracles: “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a nice guy. But I wasn’t gonna kill anyone. I-- I was just bluffing. So-- what kind of clue did Xena get from Lycus?â€
G: “Oh, no, no, no, no. Xena said you’d try this. You can’t sweet-talk information out of me-- wrong target.â€
Petracles: “Oh, I don’t know-- some people consider me the king of sweet-talk.â€
G: “Well-- hand over the crown, ‘cause you just met your match. When I was five, I talked my parents into giving me my own pony.â€
Petracles: “When I was fifteen, I talked a warlord into giving me his army.â€
G: “I once talked a Cyclops out of his dinner. And I was the dinner.â€
Petracles: “I talked Xena into marrying me.â€
G: “You can keep your crown.â€
/(A Fistful of Dinars)
Bloody Foothills was easy, as it usually is on Normal. I took the liberty to refine two new fighting techniques that I have developed during the game, mostly in act 4 when things started to get tough. The first involves lots of small steps, to fool the Death Maulers´ projectile attacks. Can also be used against ranged attacks, with the assistance of Slow Missiles. The second involved the Enslaved, a way to fight two enemies (that will dominate you if you just stand there and attack one of them) at the same time. The first enemy is the target. Smack it until the other enemy gets in on the action. Then circle around the target, so that the second enemy is on the opposite site, all the while mixing up the movement with more whacks to the first target. I sense that mastering this fighting skill will be very important later, against stronger enemies. There is no doubt that playing Gabrielle will make me a better player.
I scored a personal best on the Shenk encounter, only one Enslaved mutated. The less that mutate, the less danger and the more chances for items.
I learned something new in the Frigid Highlands: If you destroy an imp tower and that kills an imp, you don´t get any experience points for the imp. Of course, I wanted to avoid such losses. This made the gameplay more fun, a bit like a chess game. I usully hit the tower once, then backed off and tried to lure the imp somewhere else, then dash back and destroy the tower before an imp jumps onto it. Alternatively, I could sometimes block the imp´s path back to the tower and kill it quickly.
I collected my rune reward and used the Ort in the staff, making it an Artisan´s Battle Staff of Alacrity, 'OrtIthOrt'.
Abbadon held an LE boss pack of Hell Lords. Fortunately, it was not right at the beginning. I could fight one minion at a time. Those were still not to be trifled with. I killed the boss with javelins across lava. Fiery Javelins of Vileness, to be exact. They have a repair cost of 1. Weird, but I´m certainly not complaining...
There was an annoying barbarian on the Arreat Plateau. Annoying, because he interfered with my plans against the Slayer/Lasher groups:
* The barbarian triggered the Lashers to whip Slayers into suicide bombers, and there was nothing I could do about it.
* The bombers blew themselves up on the barbarian, and there was nothing I could do about it.
At level 31, I took a long break to decide what to do about Gabrielle´s stats for the future. Seeing as how things were playing out, I found it very likely that she would become Destroyer. Contrary to AlterEgo and most of the participants in this thread, I have clearly felt (from the beginning, actually!) that I had a very good chance to have Gabrielle survive Normal. I decided to aim higher. Gabrielle had STR 41 and DEX 65 at this stage (with the help of some + items). I wanted her to have STR 58 (for Mesh Belts I want to craft) and DEX 118 (for Harpoons). To get that, Gabrielle would need 70 more stat points. That means 14 level-ups and she would have the desired stats at level 45. That happens around the end of Act 1 NM. Those 70 points would have meant another +210 life instead, had I chosen to invest in that way. It was a tough decision because Gabrielle could really use that extra life.
The investment in DEX will mean that Gabrielle will have an easier time hitting enemies, especially since every skill point from here will go into Penetrate, until it is maxed. To be able to reliably hit enemies is very important for this character. Keeping the enemies in (more or less) constant hit recovery and chilled allows Gabrielle to defeat powerful single enemies, as long as she gets the first attack in and is a bit lucky with her Dodges/Avoids and I am quick with the healing potions.
Abominables turned out to be a really annoying and tough enemy type. They have quite a lot of life, a quick attack (which gets even quicker when they are hurt), they chill and they stun. Frozen Creepers were also tough. Gabrielle has bad cold resist and their Arctic Blasts hurt. Not to mention that the chilling forced Gabrielle to fight them for a longer time that she wanted. Gabrielle absolutely HATES everything that chills her. I have never felt that so strongly with any other character. The worst part is that there is very little hope to get Cannot Be Frozen with the rules I have made.
(I had planned to write a lot more but I´m too tired to continue)
Stay tuned!
G: “Xena told me never to turn my back on you.â€
Petracles: “She really hates me, doesn’t she?â€
G: “Hate’s a pretty strong word-- but it might be the right one.â€
Petracles: “But not you.â€
G: “I don’t know you-- only what I’ve been told.â€
Petracles: “And that is?â€
G: “That you’re a bloodthirsty warlord-- who doesn’t care about anything or anyone but yourself. You’d sooner sell out your soul for a profit than keep an honest promise. That kind of stuff.â€
Petracles: “Well, thanks for being up front. But, as far as the bloodthirsty warlord bit, mmm-- not quite.â€
G: “What about the villagers you were threatening?â€
Petracles: “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a nice guy. But I wasn’t gonna kill anyone. I-- I was just bluffing. So-- what kind of clue did Xena get from Lycus?â€
G: “Oh, no, no, no, no. Xena said you’d try this. You can’t sweet-talk information out of me-- wrong target.â€
Petracles: “Oh, I don’t know-- some people consider me the king of sweet-talk.â€
G: “Well-- hand over the crown, ‘cause you just met your match. When I was five, I talked my parents into giving me my own pony.â€
Petracles: “When I was fifteen, I talked a warlord into giving me his army.â€
G: “I once talked a Cyclops out of his dinner. And I was the dinner.â€
Petracles: “I talked Xena into marrying me.â€
G: “You can keep your crown.â€
/(A Fistful of Dinars)
Bloody Foothills was easy, as it usually is on Normal. I took the liberty to refine two new fighting techniques that I have developed during the game, mostly in act 4 when things started to get tough. The first involves lots of small steps, to fool the Death Maulers´ projectile attacks. Can also be used against ranged attacks, with the assistance of Slow Missiles. The second involved the Enslaved, a way to fight two enemies (that will dominate you if you just stand there and attack one of them) at the same time. The first enemy is the target. Smack it until the other enemy gets in on the action. Then circle around the target, so that the second enemy is on the opposite site, all the while mixing up the movement with more whacks to the first target. I sense that mastering this fighting skill will be very important later, against stronger enemies. There is no doubt that playing Gabrielle will make me a better player.
I scored a personal best on the Shenk encounter, only one Enslaved mutated. The less that mutate, the less danger and the more chances for items.
I learned something new in the Frigid Highlands: If you destroy an imp tower and that kills an imp, you don´t get any experience points for the imp. Of course, I wanted to avoid such losses. This made the gameplay more fun, a bit like a chess game. I usully hit the tower once, then backed off and tried to lure the imp somewhere else, then dash back and destroy the tower before an imp jumps onto it. Alternatively, I could sometimes block the imp´s path back to the tower and kill it quickly.
I collected my rune reward and used the Ort in the staff, making it an Artisan´s Battle Staff of Alacrity, 'OrtIthOrt'.
Abbadon held an LE boss pack of Hell Lords. Fortunately, it was not right at the beginning. I could fight one minion at a time. Those were still not to be trifled with. I killed the boss with javelins across lava. Fiery Javelins of Vileness, to be exact. They have a repair cost of 1. Weird, but I´m certainly not complaining...
There was an annoying barbarian on the Arreat Plateau. Annoying, because he interfered with my plans against the Slayer/Lasher groups:
* The barbarian triggered the Lashers to whip Slayers into suicide bombers, and there was nothing I could do about it.
* The bombers blew themselves up on the barbarian, and there was nothing I could do about it.
At level 31, I took a long break to decide what to do about Gabrielle´s stats for the future. Seeing as how things were playing out, I found it very likely that she would become Destroyer. Contrary to AlterEgo and most of the participants in this thread, I have clearly felt (from the beginning, actually!) that I had a very good chance to have Gabrielle survive Normal. I decided to aim higher. Gabrielle had STR 41 and DEX 65 at this stage (with the help of some + items). I wanted her to have STR 58 (for Mesh Belts I want to craft) and DEX 118 (for Harpoons). To get that, Gabrielle would need 70 more stat points. That means 14 level-ups and she would have the desired stats at level 45. That happens around the end of Act 1 NM. Those 70 points would have meant another +210 life instead, had I chosen to invest in that way. It was a tough decision because Gabrielle could really use that extra life.
The investment in DEX will mean that Gabrielle will have an easier time hitting enemies, especially since every skill point from here will go into Penetrate, until it is maxed. To be able to reliably hit enemies is very important for this character. Keeping the enemies in (more or less) constant hit recovery and chilled allows Gabrielle to defeat powerful single enemies, as long as she gets the first attack in and is a bit lucky with her Dodges/Avoids and I am quick with the healing potions.
Abominables turned out to be a really annoying and tough enemy type. They have quite a lot of life, a quick attack (which gets even quicker when they are hurt), they chill and they stun. Frozen Creepers were also tough. Gabrielle has bad cold resist and their Arctic Blasts hurt. Not to mention that the chilling forced Gabrielle to fight them for a longer time that she wanted. Gabrielle absolutely HATES everything that chills her. I have never felt that so strongly with any other character. The worst part is that there is very little hope to get Cannot Be Frozen with the rules I have made.
(I had planned to write a lot more but I´m too tired to continue)
Stay tuned!
Silverbolt
New member
Very entertaining read! I used to read stories like this on this uber-player's (non-forum) website back in the D2 Classic days and briefly in LOD. He too liked hardcore underpowered builds with lots of restrictions and gave his characters lots of, well, character. He also put in LOTS of thoughts about strategy and the state of the game at whatever the current patch level was. I won't link to it because I'm fuzzy about what can be linked to, but it was highly entertaining reading, just like this! Good job, jiansonz, and good luck!
--SB
Good job, jiansonz, and good luck!--SB
LordDamien
New member
SilverBolt would you by any chance be referring to Sirian's page? His stories were awesome, I really miss them.
Silverbolt
New member
LordDamien said:
Aye, that's the one. I started re-reading them recently before finding and joining the SPF. Nice to see threads like this one. Makes me wish I was good enough to pull off some of these ideas. Sorry for the mini-hijack. I'll go back to reading now. :teeth:
--SB
jiansonz
New member
LordDamien said:
Yep, he´s my main source of inspiration. My only Guardian so far is based on the great Skeletorr, even though my necro had a better golem and started to use Dim Vision earlier. It was a great character to play. Skeletons were so weak back in 1.09 that you really had to work hard (curses, golem placement, raise skeleton warriors, etc.) to keep the skeletal mages alive.
Serdash said:
Now I know you are pulling my leg, or you just don´t realize the limitations of this build. I´d say the chances of getting past NM Ancients are very slim indeed.
As it is now, Gabrielle can´t reliably fight two regular Abominables at the same time!
LordDamien
New member
OMG Skeletorr :surprise: That character was one of the most impressive feat you could accomplish back in 1.06. Skeletons *really* sucked in old classic. But Sirian pulled it off brilliantly :worship: It's too bad he lost interest in the game soon after LOD came out. I'm sure he would've had many interesting tales to tell if he did play longer.jiansonz said:
Anyhow good luck to Gabrielle (and Gabby too), may Ember's spirit Guide them!
Lostprophet
New member
More, I say, more! :clap:.
Fun stuff man, fun stuff. Keep it up.
Fun stuff man, fun stuff. Keep it up.
Serdash
Well-known member
Now now. Your chances of getting past Duriel with Mike the Mojomancer in Hell were slim, but you found a way. (Given it was bending the rules a bit, but still.)jiansonz said:
I think you'll come up with something. They can be ferocious, but I don't think they'll pose such a horrible challenge that you can't beat them.
