The Core of Diablo

Interestingly though, both D3 and D4 had more friction on the release day, and in D3 case, you could feel the difficulty curve just by how monsters were designed in terms of gameplay. I've spend a quite bit of time in Act IV of the game, despite it not being the most effective place to hunt for loot, just because enemies were the most engaging*. Then, the Reaper of Souls was released and the difficulty was much more flat.

*Also, D3 Izual actually was what many D2 player claim Duriel to be

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Anyways, Fajer and the Act 1 of the nightmare difficulty in Diablo 2: Ressurected
Just look at the Apocalypse damage! Flame Wave was, however, nerfed in the recent patch, and I think that's a good thing. For other things that patch did that were important for this playthrough, Summon Tainted synergies were fixed, and the skill is now considered a fire skill. Other than that, Symbol: Lethargy no longer decreases enemies' physical damage resistance, meaning I won't have it that easy in hell difficulty. For that though, I have an unusual plan.

Also, since I feel like being funny today, since Fajer is using Consume, does that mean he's Consoomer?

Let's take a look at my mercenary, especially additional stats provided by his equipment:
Amazing, isn't it?

I am still playing at players 8 setting, and still, the game is a breeze with a build like that. I have found a new spear for my merc, he then used to thrust into Blood Raven.

Got an Io rune in the Underground Passage:

Saved Cainy:

On may way to finish the Countess sidequest, I've got a nice comfort charm in the Forgotten Tower:

Killed Will and retrieved the Horadric Mallus. With Sigil:Lethargy it looks as if it is some kind of demon summoning ritual

In the Catacombs, I have found Razorswitch:
I think it is interesting item, even more so for the Warlock. +1 to all skills isn't amazing for a 2-handed unique items, but as long as the warlock has an tome as a off-hand, he can wield it in one hand. The staff has faster cast rate, nice survivability bonuses such as life, massive bonus to all resistances and magic damage reduction, as well as very comfortable bonus to mana. For my current fire-based build, it isn't amazing (since Leaf runeword gives me +3 to fire skills), but it will be useful when I'll be changing build in Act IV of the nightmare difficulty. This is because despite Apocalypse's abillity to pierce monster's fire resistance, and confirming that it is capable of dealing damage even to fire immune enemies, I don't think think the -% to enemies fire resistance would be great enough in a casual playthrough to achieve "immunity piercing" effect, even with the bonus from consuming the Tainted. In the endgame, howeve,r I can easily imagine it working well!

Anyways, even on players 8 setting, Andariel died swiftly due to her weakness to fire. She also dropped a weak loot.

Afterwards, I decided to farm Andariel some more, on players 1 difficulty for comfort (also, I didn't want to earn too much experience, since the character is hella strong anyways). The results weren't as stellar as I would have hoped for. Some highlights:
I guess if nothing else, my Mercenary got some nice upgrades.

Fajer's stats and skills at the end of act I. Once again, Apocalypse

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And at the end, interesting challenge video I saw today:

Fajer blitzing through Act II Nightmare Difficulty

If in previous post it was apparent how easy Fajer had it with his current fire-based build, then the beginning of act 2 made it even easier. Just look at this find:

+3 to Apocalypse is great on its own, but if taken to Larzuk in Act V on Normal difficulty, he can add 2 sockets into the tome, which will make it an excellent base for a Rhyme runeword:

Also, in between me finding the book and upgrading it, I have finished Radament quest and earned one skill point. While being out in the desert, one of the enemies have dropped another Magefist. I already have one, but it was nice from the game to spoil me like that.

While searching for the Staff of Kings, I managed to confirm that Apocalypse does in fact pierce fire immune enemies if their resistance aren't that much above 100%. Coldworm the Burrower served as a guena pig for that
All damage it suffered was due to my Apocalypse. Take a note that my mercenary is behind me, thus is unable to contribue to the fight.

Obligatory trip to the temple of the Claw Vipers for the second part of the Horadric Staff:

I've got two nice items from this:

I've got to give the Summoner a credit though: he did survive one cast of Apocalypse! It's players 8 difficulty setting of course, but still!

And now, Duriel fight

And with that, Fajer's adventure in act 2 reached its end!

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Also, speaking about Duriel, for the entire time I was convinced that his apparent charge attack was a myth: that people misjudged the monster approaching them and using smite as one attack, instead of two different actions. I thought it was a misconception, but apparently I was mistaken. Recently, I learned that in 1.0 version of the original game, Duriel actual had said charge attack, and furthermore, was extremely dangerous because of it on higher difficulties settings.