The Core of Diablo
- Thread starter Telumatan
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Well, unless I got it all totally wrong, I think I read it will be for free. But maybe I misread it.
Joanna Geist
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I didn't ask how big the room is, I said
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Hey, welcome to the forum, Joanna! Hope you find it your home!
Joanna Geist
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thanks 
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I thought fireball was the default answer, the question doesn't matter. Welcome to the forum! Take a seat and have fun!
jmerry
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Well, I'm back. Two years? My, how time flies when you're doing other things. Anyway, it's time to resume my D2 hardcore project right where it left off. Previous installment.
As before, this project is on original D2:LoD. Patched as far as that game went before D2R, modded slightly to allow ladder runewords in single player, and with the use of a muling program to collect stuff and salvage dead characters' gear.
When I last left off, Telka had just completed Normal difficulty as a Freezing Arrow Amazon, reaching level 48 in the process. Act 1 of Nightmare, as usual, starts off as a power fantasy. I have a substantial level advantage, and everything goes down quickly. But Telka is squishy, and late in the act Pitspawn Fouldog inflicts substantial damage. It doesn't help that I've been prioritizing strength and dexterity first before going for vitality later.
Freezing Arrow and its synergy are completed with the Book of Skill. From here on out, it's support skills and backup plans. My next couple of skill points go to second points in Valkyrie and Decoy, before I pivot to Immolation Arrow for a third element. I've got Kuko Shakaku on switch now to aid that fire plan.
Also in act 2, I swap mercenaries. Might aura comes in, because physical damage is my second element and I'm not running high ED%.
By the end of act 2, I hit level 60 and have all the STR and DEX I'll ever want - 108 and 152. Actually 109 and 152, because I misclicked a point. Everything else from now on goes to vitality.
Duriel? I go down to players 1 for him, and he takes down the decoy but not the valkyrie.
On to act 3, still progressing at players 8. My tactics evolve a bit with the increased danger; I cast decoys or strafes into the unknown a lot more often. In terms of loot, it's the most unproductive act I've had in quite some time - only Arctic Horn, Rakescar, and an Io rune reached my threshold of notability. And of course, none of those are remotely new. I do upgrade my gear though, replacing Tarnhelm with Harlequin Crest mid-act. The act ends at level 64 with the classic Mephisto cheese:
(No, he didn't drop anything worth looking at)
Early in act 4, I hit level 65. Transfer in some ingredients, and Telka's Lycander's Aim is now a Grand Matron Bow. That's what my strength and dexterity were aiming for. Is that the bow's final form? Depends on if I find a Fervor jewel with a good prefix; the breakpoints say I can afford to give up that 5% IAS at no real cost, assuming I'm getting either 0% or 20% from other items.
Most of act 4 is easy and routine at players 8. I reach level 67 in the Chaos Sanctuary. Diablo is a threat at players 1; he kills Razan twice and hits me with a Bone Prison into lightning hose combo once. Thankfully, I've got decent resists and a big chunk of MDR, so that doesn't bring my life down very fast and I'm able to heal and escape. He goes down eventually.
Entering act 5, I swap a bunch of equipment around. Telka gets a new amulet (Mara's Kaleidoscope), new crafted gloves (knockback and 20% IAS, but no skills), new boots (better speed, different resists), and some resistance charm swaps. She now has at least 50% resistance in everything, rather than 78% fire and considerably less of the others.
This leads to me discovering an important fact: Knockback doesn't work on frozen enemies. Which, actually, feels like a good thing. Freezing Arrow multihit lineups will stay in place for further freezing arrows. I can still clear at players 8 with reasonable speed, though I won't take that into Hell. Cold immunes do slow down my killing considerably, and they're going to be a lot more common in Hell.
Kill Shenk? Harlequin Crest now has a socket. Which gets filled by a perfect topaz shortly. The Frigid Highlands brings a bit of collection progress, in the form of The Atlantean (unique ancient sword). I delve into all the optional dungeons as usual, leading to this amusing sight:
Those monsters are useless. Which won''t stop me from killing them anyway. And lamenting the loot forever out of reach.
In the Frozen River, I find another new (to my HC collection) item: Duriel's Shell. That goes straight on to Razan.
Nihlathak? Corpse denial works. He can't even take down a Decoy.
I spend the personalization reward on that Harlequin Crest. After a very uneventful march - some decent items, but no scary monster spawns - I reach Baal. He takes more than a hundred arrows (at players 1), but I don't need to drink a single potion.
Telka is now level 74 and a Conqueror. Hell awaits.
As before, this project is on original D2:LoD. Patched as far as that game went before D2R, modded slightly to allow ladder runewords in single player, and with the use of a muling program to collect stuff and salvage dead characters' gear.
When I last left off, Telka had just completed Normal difficulty as a Freezing Arrow Amazon, reaching level 48 in the process. Act 1 of Nightmare, as usual, starts off as a power fantasy. I have a substantial level advantage, and everything goes down quickly. But Telka is squishy, and late in the act Pitspawn Fouldog inflicts substantial damage. It doesn't help that I've been prioritizing strength and dexterity first before going for vitality later.
Freezing Arrow and its synergy are completed with the Book of Skill. From here on out, it's support skills and backup plans. My next couple of skill points go to second points in Valkyrie and Decoy, before I pivot to Immolation Arrow for a third element. I've got Kuko Shakaku on switch now to aid that fire plan.
Also in act 2, I swap mercenaries. Might aura comes in, because physical damage is my second element and I'm not running high ED%.
By the end of act 2, I hit level 60 and have all the STR and DEX I'll ever want - 108 and 152. Actually 109 and 152, because I misclicked a point. Everything else from now on goes to vitality.
Duriel? I go down to players 1 for him, and he takes down the decoy but not the valkyrie.
On to act 3, still progressing at players 8. My tactics evolve a bit with the increased danger; I cast decoys or strafes into the unknown a lot more often. In terms of loot, it's the most unproductive act I've had in quite some time - only Arctic Horn, Rakescar, and an Io rune reached my threshold of notability. And of course, none of those are remotely new. I do upgrade my gear though, replacing Tarnhelm with Harlequin Crest mid-act. The act ends at level 64 with the classic Mephisto cheese:
(No, he didn't drop anything worth looking at)
Early in act 4, I hit level 65. Transfer in some ingredients, and Telka's Lycander's Aim is now a Grand Matron Bow. That's what my strength and dexterity were aiming for. Is that the bow's final form? Depends on if I find a Fervor jewel with a good prefix; the breakpoints say I can afford to give up that 5% IAS at no real cost, assuming I'm getting either 0% or 20% from other items.
Most of act 4 is easy and routine at players 8. I reach level 67 in the Chaos Sanctuary. Diablo is a threat at players 1; he kills Razan twice and hits me with a Bone Prison into lightning hose combo once. Thankfully, I've got decent resists and a big chunk of MDR, so that doesn't bring my life down very fast and I'm able to heal and escape. He goes down eventually.
Entering act 5, I swap a bunch of equipment around. Telka gets a new amulet (Mara's Kaleidoscope), new crafted gloves (knockback and 20% IAS, but no skills), new boots (better speed, different resists), and some resistance charm swaps. She now has at least 50% resistance in everything, rather than 78% fire and considerably less of the others.
This leads to me discovering an important fact: Knockback doesn't work on frozen enemies. Which, actually, feels like a good thing. Freezing Arrow multihit lineups will stay in place for further freezing arrows. I can still clear at players 8 with reasonable speed, though I won't take that into Hell. Cold immunes do slow down my killing considerably, and they're going to be a lot more common in Hell.
Kill Shenk? Harlequin Crest now has a socket. Which gets filled by a perfect topaz shortly. The Frigid Highlands brings a bit of collection progress, in the form of The Atlantean (unique ancient sword). I delve into all the optional dungeons as usual, leading to this amusing sight:
Those monsters are useless. Which won''t stop me from killing them anyway. And lamenting the loot forever out of reach.
In the Frozen River, I find another new (to my HC collection) item: Duriel's Shell. That goes straight on to Razan.
Nihlathak? Corpse denial works. He can't even take down a Decoy.
I spend the personalization reward on that Harlequin Crest. After a very uneventful march - some decent items, but no scary monster spawns - I reach Baal. He takes more than a hundred arrows (at players 1), but I don't need to drink a single potion.
Telka is now level 74 and a Conqueror. Hell awaits.
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jmerry
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Nothing sinister about the gap. I've just been spending my game time on other games - mostly Civ 6.
And yes, Hell comes next. Then I might even go straight to the next character in the project.
[Added in edit]
I had a bit of a technical issue with my progression post; I couldn't find my flash drive. Which may be the only way I can communicate between the computer I play Diablo 2 on and the computer I do pretty much everything else on. ~18 years of separation will do that in the world of information technology.
So, what did I do? I went out and bought a new one. The store I went to had three models ... pick the one that has a USB-A connector, because I need that. It cost me a bit less than 20 bucks. And it's tiny; that USB-A connector is probably half the volume of the whole thing. Not so tiny in terms of capacity, because that new one is 64 GB. Enough to comfortably hold the entire contents of the hard drive of the old computer, and way more than I actually need. But ... well, they don't exactly make 256 MB flash drives anymore.
Then this evening, I found the old one. Which I'll probably go right back to using. If it fails, at least I've got a backup now, and I can swap the lanyard over for a better form factor.
And yes, Hell comes next. Then I might even go straight to the next character in the project.
[Added in edit]
I had a bit of a technical issue with my progression post; I couldn't find my flash drive. Which may be the only way I can communicate between the computer I play Diablo 2 on and the computer I do pretty much everything else on. ~18 years of separation will do that in the world of information technology.
So, what did I do? I went out and bought a new one. The store I went to had three models ... pick the one that has a USB-A connector, because I need that. It cost me a bit less than 20 bucks. And it's tiny; that USB-A connector is probably half the volume of the whole thing. Not so tiny in terms of capacity, because that new one is 64 GB. Enough to comfortably hold the entire contents of the hard drive of the old computer, and way more than I actually need. But ... well, they don't exactly make 256 MB flash drives anymore.
Then this evening, I found the old one. Which I'll probably go right back to using. If it fails, at least I've got a backup now, and I can swap the lanyard over for a better form factor.
Last edited:
jmerry
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Well, here's Telka's trip through act 1 of Hell.
Before continuing, I do a major equipment shuffle to get up to Hell resistance standards. Skin of the Vipermagi -> Smoke (Archon Plate), Raven Frost + Stone of Jordan -> Scintillating Ring of Perfection + Scintillating Ring of Accuracy. Plus a few charms changed around for a bit more resistances. So she's down two skill levels and a chunk of AR, but her resists are up in the 60-70% range.
Also, after clearing Normal and Nightmare on players 8, I drop down to players 1 for Hell. Telka doesn't have the kind of overwhelming damage numbers needed to clear high player counts in Hell.
Monsters that are vulnerable to cold die fast. Cold immunes, especially those with physical resistance like zombies, die slowly. And I run into occasional dual immunes that I absolutely need the fire switch for. Treehead Woodfist even spawns cold immune/physical immune/fire enchanted for extreme tankiness.
As usual, I clear every little hole in the ground. And it pays off near the end of my first session. Behold:
That goes with the Cham rune I found earlier in ... wait, I still can't make any of those runewords. No matter, I'm sure I can find a use for it.
The Tower is the one place that gets scary. Archers. A boss pack on the first level with Might serves as a wakeup call by taking out Razan, and I use a lot more decoys for the rest of the dungeon. Plus the occasional Slow Missiles. And then, in the final level, the game pulls out all the stops. Multiple boss packs, with Might, Fanaticism, and Cursed all in play. Ouch. Or, it would be painful if they'd ever managed to hit me. I picked them apart with freezing arrows and decoys, taking out those boss packs one by one until the way to the Countess was clear. And then she shed a single Tir for the loss of her elite archers.
From there on out, it was pretty smooth all the way to Andariel. She at least managed to take out the mercenary (twice) and quite a few valkyries and decoys. But she never landed much damage on Telka, only some mediocre poison hits.
And that's it for Act 1. Telka is level 77 going in to act 2.
Before continuing, I do a major equipment shuffle to get up to Hell resistance standards. Skin of the Vipermagi -> Smoke (Archon Plate), Raven Frost + Stone of Jordan -> Scintillating Ring of Perfection + Scintillating Ring of Accuracy. Plus a few charms changed around for a bit more resistances. So she's down two skill levels and a chunk of AR, but her resists are up in the 60-70% range.
Also, after clearing Normal and Nightmare on players 8, I drop down to players 1 for Hell. Telka doesn't have the kind of overwhelming damage numbers needed to clear high player counts in Hell.
Monsters that are vulnerable to cold die fast. Cold immunes, especially those with physical resistance like zombies, die slowly. And I run into occasional dual immunes that I absolutely need the fire switch for. Treehead Woodfist even spawns cold immune/physical immune/fire enchanted for extreme tankiness.
As usual, I clear every little hole in the ground. And it pays off near the end of my first session. Behold:
That goes with the Cham rune I found earlier in ... wait, I still can't make any of those runewords. No matter, I'm sure I can find a use for it.
The Tower is the one place that gets scary. Archers. A boss pack on the first level with Might serves as a wakeup call by taking out Razan, and I use a lot more decoys for the rest of the dungeon. Plus the occasional Slow Missiles. And then, in the final level, the game pulls out all the stops. Multiple boss packs, with Might, Fanaticism, and Cursed all in play. Ouch. Or, it would be painful if they'd ever managed to hit me. I picked them apart with freezing arrows and decoys, taking out those boss packs one by one until the way to the Countess was clear. And then she shed a single Tir for the loss of her elite archers.
From there on out, it was pretty smooth all the way to Andariel. She at least managed to take out the mercenary (twice) and quite a few valkyries and decoys. But she never landed much damage on Telka, only some mediocre poison hits.
And that's it for Act 1. Telka is level 77 going in to act 2.
jmerry
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And now, Hell act 2 in Telka's journey.
Most of act 2 is pretty tame for this build. So many of the act's signature monsters just die to Freezing Arrow barrages with no fanfare. But I do run into a few tricky spots. The first one is a moment of panic in the Halls of the Dead; I find myself trapped in a room with the exit blocked by monsters, Razan dies, I'm cursed with Amplify Damage and I resort to a town portal and some potions to escape. Then I come back the long way:
And in the course of clearing out that room, Razan dies again. It's the poison that gets them; my mercenary resurrection expenses are rather high this act. What was all the trouble? Nothing special, really. I don't even know what boss mods were involved except that something was cursed. It was just an ill-advised move forward and a lot of monsters.
Oddly enough, the Maggot Lair is not at all annoying. Most of the halls are straight lines, after all - that's perfect for Freezing Arrow. Nothing is immune or even notably resistant to cold. And I can use Inner Sight as a sort of radar to light up enemies before entering a room, so I know how much I have to kill to make it safe.
Well, there is one cold enchanted beetle that blasts me for about 300 damage with an invisible frost burst. Those old bugs are the worst.
I hit a second scary moment in the Claw Viper Temple, as snakes crowd in and cause me to retreat up the stairs. There's no alternative path - I have to go back down them. But it doesn't kill the mercenary or Valkyrie, and I only need to drink one red potion in haste. Scary, but not actually close to deadly.
Somewhere along the way, I finally figure out a skill fact that's bugging me. The life synergy from Decoy to Valkyrie (+20% per level) is based on the level 1 HP of the Valkyrie. And you also get +20% of that level 1 HP for each soft level in Valkyrie. So extra points in Decoy give exactly as much to Valkrie hit points as extra points in Valkyrie do; the only benefit of investing in Decoy when you haven't maxed Valkyrie is to get a better (more HP, longer duration, lower cost) Decoy. Which I really don't need in this build; while I use the decoy, it's already good enough for my purposes at level 1+. In retrospect, I'd reassign the four extra points I've invested in Decoy into Valkyrie. A mistake, but not one I'll bother spending a respec on.
The annoying areas for this build come later in the act. First, the Arcane Sanctuary. Yes, it's wide open for arrows ... but Ghoul Lords are cold-immune and Specters are physical immune/cold resistant and can't be frozen. It takes a lot of arrows to bring those down. Then there are all those places that get Razan stuck behind so I can't benefit from his auras, and on top of that nothing seems to drop arrows. I actually have to buy arrows in town, and that's something that almost never happens elsewhere.
And then, the tombs. There's one specific enemy combination that does it - Unravelers and Apparitions. Like the Specters earlier, Apparitions are physical immune and cold resistant and can't be frozen. And that latter part means that I can't ever dispose of their corpses. So if there's an Unraveler anywhere nearby, those Apparitions just keep getting back up. And those Unravelers don't go down fast either, because they're immune to cold. Some rooms just take forever to get through with that going on.
With three enemy types selected randomly from six possibilities, this pair shows up 20% of the time.
So, naturally, I get it in two of the five small false tombs. And Kaa's tomb. And the true tomb. Where do I go to file a complaint with the random number gods?
After that slog, I finally reach Duriel. He takes a lot of arrows, a lot of blue potions, and a lot of decoys. He also never hits me or Razan for noticeable damage, and his drops are garbage as usual.
Act 2 complete at level 81. Best item finds this act: Dangoon's Teaching, Baezil's Vortex. Both of which I already had in my collection. Hopefully act 3 will bring something better.
Most of act 2 is pretty tame for this build. So many of the act's signature monsters just die to Freezing Arrow barrages with no fanfare. But I do run into a few tricky spots. The first one is a moment of panic in the Halls of the Dead; I find myself trapped in a room with the exit blocked by monsters, Razan dies, I'm cursed with Amplify Damage and I resort to a town portal and some potions to escape. Then I come back the long way:
And in the course of clearing out that room, Razan dies again. It's the poison that gets them; my mercenary resurrection expenses are rather high this act. What was all the trouble? Nothing special, really. I don't even know what boss mods were involved except that something was cursed. It was just an ill-advised move forward and a lot of monsters.
Oddly enough, the Maggot Lair is not at all annoying. Most of the halls are straight lines, after all - that's perfect for Freezing Arrow. Nothing is immune or even notably resistant to cold. And I can use Inner Sight as a sort of radar to light up enemies before entering a room, so I know how much I have to kill to make it safe.
Well, there is one cold enchanted beetle that blasts me for about 300 damage with an invisible frost burst. Those old bugs are the worst.
I hit a second scary moment in the Claw Viper Temple, as snakes crowd in and cause me to retreat up the stairs. There's no alternative path - I have to go back down them. But it doesn't kill the mercenary or Valkyrie, and I only need to drink one red potion in haste. Scary, but not actually close to deadly.
Somewhere along the way, I finally figure out a skill fact that's bugging me. The life synergy from Decoy to Valkyrie (+20% per level) is based on the level 1 HP of the Valkyrie. And you also get +20% of that level 1 HP for each soft level in Valkyrie. So extra points in Decoy give exactly as much to Valkrie hit points as extra points in Valkyrie do; the only benefit of investing in Decoy when you haven't maxed Valkyrie is to get a better (more HP, longer duration, lower cost) Decoy. Which I really don't need in this build; while I use the decoy, it's already good enough for my purposes at level 1+. In retrospect, I'd reassign the four extra points I've invested in Decoy into Valkyrie. A mistake, but not one I'll bother spending a respec on.
The annoying areas for this build come later in the act. First, the Arcane Sanctuary. Yes, it's wide open for arrows ... but Ghoul Lords are cold-immune and Specters are physical immune/cold resistant and can't be frozen. It takes a lot of arrows to bring those down. Then there are all those places that get Razan stuck behind so I can't benefit from his auras, and on top of that nothing seems to drop arrows. I actually have to buy arrows in town, and that's something that almost never happens elsewhere.
And then, the tombs. There's one specific enemy combination that does it - Unravelers and Apparitions. Like the Specters earlier, Apparitions are physical immune and cold resistant and can't be frozen. And that latter part means that I can't ever dispose of their corpses. So if there's an Unraveler anywhere nearby, those Apparitions just keep getting back up. And those Unravelers don't go down fast either, because they're immune to cold. Some rooms just take forever to get through with that going on.
With three enemy types selected randomly from six possibilities, this pair shows up 20% of the time.
So, naturally, I get it in two of the five small false tombs. And Kaa's tomb. And the true tomb. Where do I go to file a complaint with the random number gods?
After that slog, I finally reach Duriel. He takes a lot of arrows, a lot of blue potions, and a lot of decoys. He also never hits me or Razan for noticeable damage, and his drops are garbage as usual.
Act 2 complete at level 81. Best item finds this act: Dangoon's Teaching, Baezil's Vortex. Both of which I already had in my collection. Hopefully act 3 will bring something better.
jmerry
Habitué
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After finding basically nothing in that act, I decided to do a few Chaos Sanctuary runs with my sorceress Cythandria (now level 91). On the second of three runs (enough to fill up the stash once):
Yes, I am playing a paladin next after Telka's run finishes. And that's my favorite class. First time finding the Herald of Zakarum at all.
Then Diablo dropped two elite uniques on that same run (Stormshield, Rune Master), though the picture I thought I took for that didn't come out. Both of those are new to my HC collection, with the axe new to my overall collection. OK, now I feel better.
Yes, I am playing a paladin next after Telka's run finishes. And that's my favorite class. First time finding the Herald of Zakarum at all.
Then Diablo dropped two elite uniques on that same run (Stormshield, Rune Master), though the picture I thought I took for that didn't come out. Both of those are new to my HC collection, with the axe new to my overall collection. OK, now I feel better.
jmerry
Habitué
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So, back to Telka.
Act 3 of Hell brings a new troublesome enemy type: dolls. I don't want those things to ever reach melee range of me. So, any area where they might show up - and in most of those, they did - I followed "decoy first" protocols. What's that? Before entering a room, cast a decoy into it. If that decoy gets attacked, great. You've found where some enemies are. Kill them. If the decoy doesn't get attacked, great. You've found somewhere enemies aren't. Advance.
Other than that, it was all pretty smooth. No real close calls; I did go back to town once for a spider bite, but that wasn't any risk of death. Also, hardly any good items. Just a couple of exceptional uniques, one of them ethereal.
Actually, the worst moment? Back on the surface after the Swampy Pit, I stupidly walked into a pack of flayers. 400 damage before I could retreat. Remember, even momentary inattention can be deadly in this game.
Mephisto? Set up the cross-moat spot, lock on and switch to Guided Arrow, hold the mouse button down until he's dead.
Act 3 gets me to level 82. And since I had room in the stash, I just kept going to act 4. (I didn't catch Mephisto's drops in that shot, but there weren't any unique or set items).
Act 4 has a lot of bulky monsters, but nothing that's scary for this build. Among what I saw, Abyss Knights (big ranged damage) and Oblivion Knights (cold immune) were the worst. Hephasto spawned physical immune, so I guzzled three blue potions to take him down without letting him anywhere near me. All the freezing arrows.
Well, at least that's a good Hellforge drop.
In the Chaos Sanctuary, it's that layout that traps you behind Infector when you spawn him. Nope - I opened up a town portal first and came back the long way. Killing the pack after that wasn't hard, of course.
And that just leaves Diablo himself. Lots of potions, lots of running around, a couple merc resurrections, and freezing arrows every time I could pin him down in melee with something. It worked eventually. No serious hits taken.
And once again, I didn't get the items in the shot. One unique: The Diggler. I did pick up one good item earlier in the act: Windhammer, from a random stash in the City of the Damned. Nothing new to the collection in this update.
So that's just one act left. Telka is level 83 at the beginning of act 5.
Act 3 of Hell brings a new troublesome enemy type: dolls. I don't want those things to ever reach melee range of me. So, any area where they might show up - and in most of those, they did - I followed "decoy first" protocols. What's that? Before entering a room, cast a decoy into it. If that decoy gets attacked, great. You've found where some enemies are. Kill them. If the decoy doesn't get attacked, great. You've found somewhere enemies aren't. Advance.
Other than that, it was all pretty smooth. No real close calls; I did go back to town once for a spider bite, but that wasn't any risk of death. Also, hardly any good items. Just a couple of exceptional uniques, one of them ethereal.
Actually, the worst moment? Back on the surface after the Swampy Pit, I stupidly walked into a pack of flayers. 400 damage before I could retreat. Remember, even momentary inattention can be deadly in this game.
Mephisto? Set up the cross-moat spot, lock on and switch to Guided Arrow, hold the mouse button down until he's dead.
Act 3 gets me to level 82. And since I had room in the stash, I just kept going to act 4. (I didn't catch Mephisto's drops in that shot, but there weren't any unique or set items).
Act 4 has a lot of bulky monsters, but nothing that's scary for this build. Among what I saw, Abyss Knights (big ranged damage) and Oblivion Knights (cold immune) were the worst. Hephasto spawned physical immune, so I guzzled three blue potions to take him down without letting him anywhere near me. All the freezing arrows.
Well, at least that's a good Hellforge drop.
In the Chaos Sanctuary, it's that layout that traps you behind Infector when you spawn him. Nope - I opened up a town portal first and came back the long way. Killing the pack after that wasn't hard, of course.
And that just leaves Diablo himself. Lots of potions, lots of running around, a couple merc resurrections, and freezing arrows every time I could pin him down in melee with something. It worked eventually. No serious hits taken.
And once again, I didn't get the items in the shot. One unique: The Diggler. I did pick up one good item earlier in the act: Windhammer, from a random stash in the City of the Damned. Nothing new to the collection in this update.
So that's just one act left. Telka is level 83 at the beginning of act 5.
jmerry
Habitué
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- 59
Telka enters act 5, and the game gets hard. She doesn't take damage very often - the Bloody Foothills is actually among the worst, with Quill Rats and their near-invisible projectiles - but many areas feature bulky cold-immune or freeze-immune enemies that take a long time to kill. After all, Telka has a serious weakness - she just doesn't do very much physical damage per hit.
Also, I play cautiously. Many areas get the decoy-first treatment, even if the enemies' damage potential isn't all that impressive. Well, except for the zones with succubi. The Frozen River was particularly bad with two varieties, one cold-immune. But at least the reward is nice. Lightning resistance maxes out with Malah's scroll, and the other three are just a few points away.
Loot? Not so much. Though there is one moment in Nihlathak's halls ...
First a Skin of the Vipermagi drops from a random boss, then an ordinary monster adds a normal unique. Nice.
The third level of those halls? Nope. I'm not equipped to take down Nihlathak's minions efficiently, or to deny their corpses to him. It's a shame, too - Razortail really deserves Telka's name on it. So that quest gets skipped, and I press on.
The Ancients are trouble. I reroll several times, but every option kills Razan quickly. So eventually I just settle for one of those and start plinking away with Guided Arrow. When I'm not running away from Madawc, that is. But eventually after hundreds of arrows, he goes down. The other two are much quicker, as I can mostly stand in place shooting them. Good thing I brought multiple extra arrow stacks for this one.
The Worldstone Keep? A slog of a draw in the first level, with cold-immune Ghoul Lords and freeze-immune Death Lords. Everything after that, though, was much faster. Only the Throne itself really slowed me down, bringing back the Death Lords but with Oblivion and Doom Knights this time.
Then Baal. Twenty-five minutes. About twenty town portals, mostly to dismiss his clones. Countless arrows. Lots of potions, and too many times raising Razan. But eventually, I wear him down.
And the drop is garbage. Oh well. Can't take away the title.
I did actually find one new item for the collection this act. The unique plate mail Boneflesh dropped in the Throne, and I somehow didn't have that in HC already.
Telka finishes her journey at level 85. Skills: 1 in all bow skills, 20 to Freezing Arrow, Cold Arrow, and Immolation Arrow. +8 to that tree. 1 in all passive/magic skills, 5 to Decoy, 16 to Valkrie. +6 to that tree.
And here's a composite picture of her gear:
Who's next? I've tried six of the seven classes so far in this project, with four Guardians and two failures. Only one remains, and it's my favorite. The paladin. Galvarey will soon set out on his attempt.
(After that, retries of failed classes. It's not over until I have seven Guardians.)
Also, I play cautiously. Many areas get the decoy-first treatment, even if the enemies' damage potential isn't all that impressive. Well, except for the zones with succubi. The Frozen River was particularly bad with two varieties, one cold-immune. But at least the reward is nice. Lightning resistance maxes out with Malah's scroll, and the other three are just a few points away.
Loot? Not so much. Though there is one moment in Nihlathak's halls ...
First a Skin of the Vipermagi drops from a random boss, then an ordinary monster adds a normal unique. Nice.
The third level of those halls? Nope. I'm not equipped to take down Nihlathak's minions efficiently, or to deny their corpses to him. It's a shame, too - Razortail really deserves Telka's name on it. So that quest gets skipped, and I press on.
The Ancients are trouble. I reroll several times, but every option kills Razan quickly. So eventually I just settle for one of those and start plinking away with Guided Arrow. When I'm not running away from Madawc, that is. But eventually after hundreds of arrows, he goes down. The other two are much quicker, as I can mostly stand in place shooting them. Good thing I brought multiple extra arrow stacks for this one.
The Worldstone Keep? A slog of a draw in the first level, with cold-immune Ghoul Lords and freeze-immune Death Lords. Everything after that, though, was much faster. Only the Throne itself really slowed me down, bringing back the Death Lords but with Oblivion and Doom Knights this time.
Then Baal. Twenty-five minutes. About twenty town portals, mostly to dismiss his clones. Countless arrows. Lots of potions, and too many times raising Razan. But eventually, I wear him down.
And the drop is garbage. Oh well. Can't take away the title.
I did actually find one new item for the collection this act. The unique plate mail Boneflesh dropped in the Throne, and I somehow didn't have that in HC already.
Telka finishes her journey at level 85. Skills: 1 in all bow skills, 20 to Freezing Arrow, Cold Arrow, and Immolation Arrow. +8 to that tree. 1 in all passive/magic skills, 5 to Decoy, 16 to Valkrie. +6 to that tree.
And here's a composite picture of her gear:
Who's next? I've tried six of the seven classes so far in this project, with four Guardians and two failures. Only one remains, and it's my favorite. The paladin. Galvarey will soon set out on his attempt.
(After that, retries of failed classes. It's not over until I have seven Guardians.)
jmerry
Habitué
- Messages
- 59
Last time, I teased my next character. And now, I've started playing him. Galvarey is a paladin, specifically a Holy Shock zealot. No flying hammers for me. I just really like how the melee paladin plays, with an interesting range of defensive tools and offensive tricks. Playing melee without a giant health pool in hardcore might not be the smartest thing to do, but it's what I want to do. And being this late in the project, Galvarey has an excellent selection of gear to choose from.
To start with, I send over a fairly standard starter package. Khalim's Will for the first few levels. The full Angelic Raiment set (with two rings). Sigon's boots, belt, and gloves. Tarnhelm. And this shield:
63% to all resistances. At level 3. That is all.
Naturally, this breezes through everything in the early game. Kill speed slows down some when I switch to the Angelic Sickle weapon, but I'm getting decent damage from elemental auras by then. My stat points are split near-evenly between strength and dexterity, with only a few to vitality; I just don't need extra hit points yet.
Andariel brings a nice surprise:
The unique sash Lenymo. New to my collection, and I didn't have it in softcore. I probably found it some time in the past, but not since I started tracking.
In act 2, I make my next equipment upgrades. Level 25 comes near the end of the outdoor segment, so when I break at the natural stopping point I add some Spirit:
Plus two more on the weapon switch, for a couple extra levels casting Holy Shield. The mercenary will also get an Insight partizan soon; I don't care about the aura on this character, but the damage is great.
Other than that, the only real thing of note that happens in act 2 is Holy Shock coming on line. My damage increases substantially with every level. Duriel ... well, at least he drops a unique. Swordback Hold isn't very special, though.
Act 3 is just as easy, and I find a great profusion of set items. Including three from Mephisto - Isenhart's Horns, Isenhart's Parry, and Sander's Riprap. In act 4, I finally pick up some of those utility auras - the Izual quest reward goes to Redemption and Conviction, since I can't put them into Holy Shock.
Diablo hits hard, mostly from his melee cold hand attack. With him taking out my mercenary, I drink some potions to keep safe. No notable drops, though.
Then it's act 5, and time for a new shield. Well, once I get enough levels.
Wait, no. It's not done yet.
There. That's better. At this point, I've also moved on from increasing Holy Shock to boosting its synergy, since the aura itself is maxed. Redemption got its first use in the Nihlathak fight, clearing out corpses. Though it really wasn't necessary.
Baal? He can't put on any real pressure. Sure, he does some damage, but Haseen lives so my health stays high.
Destroyer status achieved at level 48. But there's still a few things I'd like to do before moving on.
That amounts to one more session. Cows, but not the king. Then I clear a bunch of act 1 ...
... and that's the sort of thing I was looking for. A new item for my HC collection, Pelta Lunata.
Then I find a triple-durability rare buckler in the level 2 super-chest. Sorry, can't get two copies of a unique in the same session.
I finish that session up with Andariel and another Baal run. Level 50, and now I'm done with normal difficulty. Though I might come back later for more low-level item hunting.
Incidentally, my combined softcore and hardcore collection now has all but two of the normal uniques. Only Bane Ash (short staff) and Greyform (quilted armor) remain to be found.
To start with, I send over a fairly standard starter package. Khalim's Will for the first few levels. The full Angelic Raiment set (with two rings). Sigon's boots, belt, and gloves. Tarnhelm. And this shield:
63% to all resistances. At level 3. That is all.
Naturally, this breezes through everything in the early game. Kill speed slows down some when I switch to the Angelic Sickle weapon, but I'm getting decent damage from elemental auras by then. My stat points are split near-evenly between strength and dexterity, with only a few to vitality; I just don't need extra hit points yet.
Andariel brings a nice surprise:
The unique sash Lenymo. New to my collection, and I didn't have it in softcore. I probably found it some time in the past, but not since I started tracking.
In act 2, I make my next equipment upgrades. Level 25 comes near the end of the outdoor segment, so when I break at the natural stopping point I add some Spirit:
Plus two more on the weapon switch, for a couple extra levels casting Holy Shield. The mercenary will also get an Insight partizan soon; I don't care about the aura on this character, but the damage is great.
Other than that, the only real thing of note that happens in act 2 is Holy Shock coming on line. My damage increases substantially with every level. Duriel ... well, at least he drops a unique. Swordback Hold isn't very special, though.
Act 3 is just as easy, and I find a great profusion of set items. Including three from Mephisto - Isenhart's Horns, Isenhart's Parry, and Sander's Riprap. In act 4, I finally pick up some of those utility auras - the Izual quest reward goes to Redemption and Conviction, since I can't put them into Holy Shock.
Diablo hits hard, mostly from his melee cold hand attack. With him taking out my mercenary, I drink some potions to keep safe. No notable drops, though.
Then it's act 5, and time for a new shield. Well, once I get enough levels.
Wait, no. It's not done yet.
There. That's better. At this point, I've also moved on from increasing Holy Shock to boosting its synergy, since the aura itself is maxed. Redemption got its first use in the Nihlathak fight, clearing out corpses. Though it really wasn't necessary.
Baal? He can't put on any real pressure. Sure, he does some damage, but Haseen lives so my health stays high.
Destroyer status achieved at level 48. But there's still a few things I'd like to do before moving on.
That amounts to one more session. Cows, but not the king. Then I clear a bunch of act 1 ...
... and that's the sort of thing I was looking for. A new item for my HC collection, Pelta Lunata.
Then I find a triple-durability rare buckler in the level 2 super-chest. Sorry, can't get two copies of a unique in the same session.
I finish that session up with Andariel and another Baal run. Level 50, and now I'm done with normal difficulty. Though I might come back later for more low-level item hunting.
Incidentally, my combined softcore and hardcore collection now has all but two of the normal uniques. Only Bane Ash (short staff) and Greyform (quilted armor) remain to be found.
jmerry
Habitué
- Messages
- 59
Galvarey has now made it through Nightmare difficulty. Five acts to go.
Nightmare starts with a large-scale equipment swap. Angelic Sickle -> Ginther's Rift. Tarnhelm -> Stealskull. Sigon's Gage -> Immortal King's Forge. Sigon's Wrap -> Immortal King's Detail. Sigon's Sabot -> rare boots (30 FRW, 26 lightning resist, 40 poison resist). Three small charms add the resists I need to max everything, and I add two skill grand charms (combat skills, defensive auras). So my offensive auras are a bit weaker, but my weapon can actually kill lightning immunes with decent speed now. I also have a bunch of MDR from that weapon, enough attack speed that I'm still getting 5-frame zeal, and my weapon has better reach so Zeal doesn't whiff all the time. Magic find is down some, but I've still got over 100 with the partial Angelic set.
And the item finding starts well, with a nice drop from Blood Raven:
Bloodfist isn't notably rare, but I didn't have it in my HC collection yet.
Tristram is the first troublesome spot, with a Conviction/lightning archer right next to a cold archer. OK, any time I see or hear that green aura? Switch to Salvation to counter it. Because there's almost always some element there that's going to hurt if I don't.
Other than that, the act is very easy up until the monastery. I hit level 51 in the depths of the Tower, finishing off my strength and dexterity - it's all vitality from here on. The next trouble spot is in the Catacombs, with some Tainted boss packs. They're very resistant to my lightning damage, and they can deal a lot of damage of their own despite my resistances. But some tactical retreats took care of that, with no need for potions because of fast Prayer healing.
Act 2? Nice and easy until I run into a cold enchanted beetle boss. That deals over a hundred damage ... right, cold and fire enchanted beetles are on the no-melee list for Hell.
In the middle of the act, I switch up the mercenary. No more ethereal runeword Partizan - instead it's an ethereal unique Partizan. And I trade out the Prayer aura for Holy Freeze. And then, as I'm clearing out the false tombs, I hit level 59. It's time.
Grief. It's a monstrously powerful weapon, mostly because of that "Damage +340-400" affix. For a first Lo rune, you can't go wrong with this one. Put it in a phase blade for the best possible speed, and just about any melee build will love it.
For the record, level 15 Venom is 305 damage over 0.4 seconds, and your overall poison duration is locked at that value. Other poison sources are basically irrelevant.
Then I hit Duriel, and ... this is an insult.
Quest drop. Three town portal scrolls. They shouldn't even be on the drop table; Tyrael opens up a portal for you that first time.
Act 3 ... dolls are scary. That's not exactly a controversial position, but this build doesn't have a lot of good options for dealing with them. I can handle one explosion, and I can usually handle more with blocking, but there's always that risk of a few bad rolls. Fighting a group of dolls at the same time is an unacceptable risk. Which makes Durance 2 a slow grind - it got my hopes up with Maulers and Cadavers, but then the third enemy type showed up and it was the dolls.
After that, Mephisto is nothing. Absolutely routine.
Act 4 is relatively safe by comparison. Sure, the monsters there are tough, but there's nothing like the beetles and dolls for anti-melee nastiness. Hephasto ... OK, he's Extra Strong + Might this time. I was right to be careful. The Hellforge drops a Shael rune, and then just a bit later ...
Nice. I can always use more Um runes. The two I've found thus far are in Duress and Stone runewords. I could cube one if I really needed it, but it's always better to just find the rune itself.
Diablo drops The Atlantean. A nice mid-level option for a Fanaticism build, but too slow for Holy Shock. And I already had one I wasn't using anyway.
On to act 5, and I find an ethereal Bonesnap in the Frozen River, to join the three non-ethereal ones I found earlier in the difficulty. Maybe I'll send that to Danys as her Blade Fury switch.
I brave the Halls of Vaught ... Prowling Dead, Hell Temptress, Ghost. Pretty harmless. No traitor in the first three wings, so I break out the Redemption for the fourth. Some corpses get exploded anyway. None get past my shield. And so I claim my reward:
Grief should be personal.
I press on to the end from there. The Ancients get me to level 73. Baal goes down at level 74. But that's not quite the end - I still want a bit more. I come back for another session, clearing out the cows (except the king) and then Baal again. Then one more Baal run, which brings me to level 76, my objective. And one more nice drop to end on.
Not ethereal, not new to my collection, but still nice enough.
That unassigned skill point? I've maxed Holy Shock, Resist Lightning, and Holy Shield. Everything from here on is discretionary, and I just haven't decided yet. Zeal for AR and physical damage? Sacrifice for a bit more physical damage? Defiance for defense? Any of those would be nice.
I've also been mixing in Chaos Sanctuary runs with Cythandria, since I'm not particularly satisfied with my options for the Hell equipment upgrade. I'll still do a few more of those before moving on.
New items for the collection since the beginning of Nightmare, found by Galvarey: Bloodfist, Moonfall, Sparking Mail, The Iron Jang Bong.
New items for the collection found by Cythandria: Haemosu's Adamant, Swordguard, Crow Caw, Vidala's Ambush, Jade Talon.
Nightmare starts with a large-scale equipment swap. Angelic Sickle -> Ginther's Rift. Tarnhelm -> Stealskull. Sigon's Gage -> Immortal King's Forge. Sigon's Wrap -> Immortal King's Detail. Sigon's Sabot -> rare boots (30 FRW, 26 lightning resist, 40 poison resist). Three small charms add the resists I need to max everything, and I add two skill grand charms (combat skills, defensive auras). So my offensive auras are a bit weaker, but my weapon can actually kill lightning immunes with decent speed now. I also have a bunch of MDR from that weapon, enough attack speed that I'm still getting 5-frame zeal, and my weapon has better reach so Zeal doesn't whiff all the time. Magic find is down some, but I've still got over 100 with the partial Angelic set.
And the item finding starts well, with a nice drop from Blood Raven:
Bloodfist isn't notably rare, but I didn't have it in my HC collection yet.
Tristram is the first troublesome spot, with a Conviction/lightning archer right next to a cold archer. OK, any time I see or hear that green aura? Switch to Salvation to counter it. Because there's almost always some element there that's going to hurt if I don't.
Other than that, the act is very easy up until the monastery. I hit level 51 in the depths of the Tower, finishing off my strength and dexterity - it's all vitality from here on. The next trouble spot is in the Catacombs, with some Tainted boss packs. They're very resistant to my lightning damage, and they can deal a lot of damage of their own despite my resistances. But some tactical retreats took care of that, with no need for potions because of fast Prayer healing.
Act 2? Nice and easy until I run into a cold enchanted beetle boss. That deals over a hundred damage ... right, cold and fire enchanted beetles are on the no-melee list for Hell.
In the middle of the act, I switch up the mercenary. No more ethereal runeword Partizan - instead it's an ethereal unique Partizan. And I trade out the Prayer aura for Holy Freeze. And then, as I'm clearing out the false tombs, I hit level 59. It's time.
Grief. It's a monstrously powerful weapon, mostly because of that "Damage +340-400" affix. For a first Lo rune, you can't go wrong with this one. Put it in a phase blade for the best possible speed, and just about any melee build will love it.
For the record, level 15 Venom is 305 damage over 0.4 seconds, and your overall poison duration is locked at that value. Other poison sources are basically irrelevant.
Then I hit Duriel, and ... this is an insult.
Quest drop. Three town portal scrolls. They shouldn't even be on the drop table; Tyrael opens up a portal for you that first time.
Act 3 ... dolls are scary. That's not exactly a controversial position, but this build doesn't have a lot of good options for dealing with them. I can handle one explosion, and I can usually handle more with blocking, but there's always that risk of a few bad rolls. Fighting a group of dolls at the same time is an unacceptable risk. Which makes Durance 2 a slow grind - it got my hopes up with Maulers and Cadavers, but then the third enemy type showed up and it was the dolls.
After that, Mephisto is nothing. Absolutely routine.
Act 4 is relatively safe by comparison. Sure, the monsters there are tough, but there's nothing like the beetles and dolls for anti-melee nastiness. Hephasto ... OK, he's Extra Strong + Might this time. I was right to be careful. The Hellforge drops a Shael rune, and then just a bit later ...
Nice. I can always use more Um runes. The two I've found thus far are in Duress and Stone runewords. I could cube one if I really needed it, but it's always better to just find the rune itself.
Diablo drops The Atlantean. A nice mid-level option for a Fanaticism build, but too slow for Holy Shock. And I already had one I wasn't using anyway.
On to act 5, and I find an ethereal Bonesnap in the Frozen River, to join the three non-ethereal ones I found earlier in the difficulty. Maybe I'll send that to Danys as her Blade Fury switch.
I brave the Halls of Vaught ... Prowling Dead, Hell Temptress, Ghost. Pretty harmless. No traitor in the first three wings, so I break out the Redemption for the fourth. Some corpses get exploded anyway. None get past my shield. And so I claim my reward:
Grief should be personal.
I press on to the end from there. The Ancients get me to level 73. Baal goes down at level 74. But that's not quite the end - I still want a bit more. I come back for another session, clearing out the cows (except the king) and then Baal again. Then one more Baal run, which brings me to level 76, my objective. And one more nice drop to end on.
Not ethereal, not new to my collection, but still nice enough.
That unassigned skill point? I've maxed Holy Shock, Resist Lightning, and Holy Shield. Everything from here on is discretionary, and I just haven't decided yet. Zeal for AR and physical damage? Sacrifice for a bit more physical damage? Defiance for defense? Any of those would be nice.
I've also been mixing in Chaos Sanctuary runs with Cythandria, since I'm not particularly satisfied with my options for the Hell equipment upgrade. I'll still do a few more of those before moving on.
New items for the collection since the beginning of Nightmare, found by Galvarey: Bloodfist, Moonfall, Sparking Mail, The Iron Jang Bong.
New items for the collection found by Cythandria: Haemosu's Adamant, Swordguard, Crow Caw, Vidala's Ambush, Jade Talon.
jmerry
Habitué
- Messages
- 59
Time for the first Hell update from Galvarey. Two acts, this time.
To start with, Galvarey needed a major gear update for Hell. Here's what I settled on:
Angelic Wings -> Seraph's Hymn (amulet)
Angelic Mantle -> Gloom (Kraken Shell) (armor)
Angelic Halo -> Raven Frost (ring)
Angelic Halo -> Scintillating Ring of Flame (ring)
Ginther's Rift -> Demon Limb (alternate weapon)
Immortal King's Forge -> Dracul's Grasp (gloves)
That last one is very important - it's why I pushed to level 76 before moving on. That chance to cast Life Tap is incredibly powerful. I also swapped a few small charms and brought in a Gheed's Fortune (only 22 MF and 89 GF, but that's what I had spare).
Resistances are maxed. Defense is up to over 15K with Holy Shield active - that's why the low-level armor really needed to go. But as a cost, I'm down to a bit under 800 HP.
Then, at the first session break, I update Azrael's gear as well. Natalya's Totem, Leviathan, Bonehew (2x Shael). Should have done that immediately, but I forgot.
Throughout act 1, I kept running at players 8. I have a lot of offensive power, and extra levels are a big deal for a melee character. Especially one that's investing in life and defense. All of my stat points are going to Vitality, and after a couple of utility auras my skill points are going to Defiance for the 15% Holy Shield synergy. Incidentally, my Holy Shield and Enchant casts have nearly the same duration. I just recast both of them at the same time whenever I need to, for a nice bit of convenience.
What felt threatening? Not that Conviction/Cold Enchanted/Lightning Enchanted boss Misshapen. Just switching to Salvation neutered that aura and let me outheal the damage easily. Not the uniformly lightning immune monsters of the Mausoleum and Crypt - I have Sanctuary for them. Actually, that's something I want to talk about: this character's tactics.
On the left button, I have Zeal. And that basically never changes. One of the few drawbacks of Grief is that Vengeance doesn't work with the +damage modifier, so Vengeance/Conviction isn't a good option against physical immunes. Sure, I have things hotkeyed, but I don't use them. On the right button, I have a ton of auras and a couple of buffs. Those hotkeys, I use all the time.
- Holy Shock. Primary attack aura against anything that's not lightning immune.
- Sanctuary. Attack aura against undead, often including undead that are vulnerable to lightning. On top of the large damage bonus, it makes my attacks ignore the physical resistances of undead. Even at one point, it's amazing.
- Concentration. More damage for non-undead lightning immunes, and I can even share it with my mercenary. It cost some points, but it's a higher number than Might.
- Conviction. A way to hit a little harder against dual-immune bosses. Both from more fire/cold damage and a higher chance to hit.
- Salvation. Counters enemy Conviction.
- Vigor. Move faster in safe areas.
- Cleansing. End poison and curses.
- Redemption. Remove corpses. The health and mana is not the priority.
- Holy Shield. All the defense against physical attacks.
- Enchant. A bit of fire damage and a lot of attack rating.
All of those are hotkeyed and used regularly. Sometimes I'll use all three of my primary attack auras in the same area based on monster types.
Also, because of the way auras work, this is a build that I could play with a one-button mouse without any real inconvenience. Only two active skills are on the right button (which involves holding down a key and clicking if you're playing on a Mac with a one-button mouse), and I only cast those once every 11 minutes. That's part of why I've always liked the Paladin; while I don't use one now, I had one-button mice for about the first four years I played the game.
Other than tailoring the aura to the threat, what can I do? Don't get surrounded. Against some groups, don't charge in until that Life Tap procs. Because once Life Tap is on those monsters, Galvarey and Azrael are basically immortal. And that includes the likes of skeletons or even ghosts; Life Tap ignores the usual leech reductions, and Sanctuary ignores physical resistances.
I do run into a group that feels dangerous in act 1 - after an unremarkable trip through the Tower, the very last room combines an Extra Strong Archer and a Fanaticism ghost. That. I had to pull apart. And my reward ...
Nothing of note. Oh well.
I do pick up some new collection items in act 1: Wizardspike in Tristram, Telling of Beads in the Pit, Firelizard's Talons also in the Pit, and Ume's Lament in the Jail.
The Catacombs reminds me that I always need to be careful: a bunch of Dark Ones (from a double boss pack) lands multiple hits virtually simultaneously to take off more than half of Galvarey's health. No, I can't ignore even the small monsters. Andariel? She's got a lot of health, but once Life Tap lands the outcome is never in doubt.
Two uniques, nothing new.
Act 2 is famous for all the skeletons causing trouble for leech-reliant builds, but it turns out that for this build, the preponderance of animals is more of an issue. Skeletons are easy. Beetles and swarms and randomly lightning-immune vultures are much more troublesome. I've got a lot of bonus damage against demons and undead, but nothing against monsters that don't fit either character.
I also drop the players count to 5. I don't want to spend quite so long beating everyone down. But any farther than that ... actually, there's a good reason not to turn it down. And I run into it against a boss pack of beetles. Beetles trigger their lightning retaliation whenever they go into hit recovery or die, and cold/fire enchanted beetles also set off their elemental explosions (invisibly) on hit recovery. At players 5, I don't do enough damage to trigger that. Which makes them safe to melee. You can, in fact, be too powerful for your own good.
In all of act 2, I don't find a single new item. Here are my two best finds for the act:
Yeah, I have all three of the elite unique claws now. But no Bartuc's. This Jade Talon is a better skill roll than my previous one, too.
Somewhere during the act, I swap Azrael's weapon out for a Viperfork. Probably not quite as good in general, but it does some automatic corpse disposal with those Poison Explosion triggers.
Near the end, in the last of the false tombs, I have my first true near-death experience of the run. Heading into a room with a champion pack of Unravelers, their ranged attacks and a melee hit or two drop me down to double digit HP. Briefly. I hit the fat purple button as fast as I could, as well as moving out of the line of fire.
Now, Duriel. Should I lower the players count, since act boss quest drops are guaranteed to have the maximum number of items? Nah. I don't respect him as a threat to melee characters. Walk up. Hold left mouse button until he's dead.
Collect worthless drops.
That level I'm almost at? 86. About 600K XP left, which should come very soon in act 3.
To start with, Galvarey needed a major gear update for Hell. Here's what I settled on:
Angelic Wings -> Seraph's Hymn (amulet)
Angelic Mantle -> Gloom (Kraken Shell) (armor)
Angelic Halo -> Raven Frost (ring)
Angelic Halo -> Scintillating Ring of Flame (ring)
Ginther's Rift -> Demon Limb (alternate weapon)
Immortal King's Forge -> Dracul's Grasp (gloves)
That last one is very important - it's why I pushed to level 76 before moving on. That chance to cast Life Tap is incredibly powerful. I also swapped a few small charms and brought in a Gheed's Fortune (only 22 MF and 89 GF, but that's what I had spare).
Resistances are maxed. Defense is up to over 15K with Holy Shield active - that's why the low-level armor really needed to go. But as a cost, I'm down to a bit under 800 HP.
Then, at the first session break, I update Azrael's gear as well. Natalya's Totem, Leviathan, Bonehew (2x Shael). Should have done that immediately, but I forgot.
Throughout act 1, I kept running at players 8. I have a lot of offensive power, and extra levels are a big deal for a melee character. Especially one that's investing in life and defense. All of my stat points are going to Vitality, and after a couple of utility auras my skill points are going to Defiance for the 15% Holy Shield synergy. Incidentally, my Holy Shield and Enchant casts have nearly the same duration. I just recast both of them at the same time whenever I need to, for a nice bit of convenience.
What felt threatening? Not that Conviction/Cold Enchanted/Lightning Enchanted boss Misshapen. Just switching to Salvation neutered that aura and let me outheal the damage easily. Not the uniformly lightning immune monsters of the Mausoleum and Crypt - I have Sanctuary for them. Actually, that's something I want to talk about: this character's tactics.
On the left button, I have Zeal. And that basically never changes. One of the few drawbacks of Grief is that Vengeance doesn't work with the +damage modifier, so Vengeance/Conviction isn't a good option against physical immunes. Sure, I have things hotkeyed, but I don't use them. On the right button, I have a ton of auras and a couple of buffs. Those hotkeys, I use all the time.
- Holy Shock. Primary attack aura against anything that's not lightning immune.
- Sanctuary. Attack aura against undead, often including undead that are vulnerable to lightning. On top of the large damage bonus, it makes my attacks ignore the physical resistances of undead. Even at one point, it's amazing.
- Concentration. More damage for non-undead lightning immunes, and I can even share it with my mercenary. It cost some points, but it's a higher number than Might.
- Conviction. A way to hit a little harder against dual-immune bosses. Both from more fire/cold damage and a higher chance to hit.
- Salvation. Counters enemy Conviction.
- Vigor. Move faster in safe areas.
- Cleansing. End poison and curses.
- Redemption. Remove corpses. The health and mana is not the priority.
- Holy Shield. All the defense against physical attacks.
- Enchant. A bit of fire damage and a lot of attack rating.
All of those are hotkeyed and used regularly. Sometimes I'll use all three of my primary attack auras in the same area based on monster types.
Also, because of the way auras work, this is a build that I could play with a one-button mouse without any real inconvenience. Only two active skills are on the right button (which involves holding down a key and clicking if you're playing on a Mac with a one-button mouse), and I only cast those once every 11 minutes. That's part of why I've always liked the Paladin; while I don't use one now, I had one-button mice for about the first four years I played the game.
Other than tailoring the aura to the threat, what can I do? Don't get surrounded. Against some groups, don't charge in until that Life Tap procs. Because once Life Tap is on those monsters, Galvarey and Azrael are basically immortal. And that includes the likes of skeletons or even ghosts; Life Tap ignores the usual leech reductions, and Sanctuary ignores physical resistances.
I do run into a group that feels dangerous in act 1 - after an unremarkable trip through the Tower, the very last room combines an Extra Strong Archer and a Fanaticism ghost. That. I had to pull apart. And my reward ...
Nothing of note. Oh well.
I do pick up some new collection items in act 1: Wizardspike in Tristram, Telling of Beads in the Pit, Firelizard's Talons also in the Pit, and Ume's Lament in the Jail.
The Catacombs reminds me that I always need to be careful: a bunch of Dark Ones (from a double boss pack) lands multiple hits virtually simultaneously to take off more than half of Galvarey's health. No, I can't ignore even the small monsters. Andariel? She's got a lot of health, but once Life Tap lands the outcome is never in doubt.
Two uniques, nothing new.
Act 2 is famous for all the skeletons causing trouble for leech-reliant builds, but it turns out that for this build, the preponderance of animals is more of an issue. Skeletons are easy. Beetles and swarms and randomly lightning-immune vultures are much more troublesome. I've got a lot of bonus damage against demons and undead, but nothing against monsters that don't fit either character.
I also drop the players count to 5. I don't want to spend quite so long beating everyone down. But any farther than that ... actually, there's a good reason not to turn it down. And I run into it against a boss pack of beetles. Beetles trigger their lightning retaliation whenever they go into hit recovery or die, and cold/fire enchanted beetles also set off their elemental explosions (invisibly) on hit recovery. At players 5, I don't do enough damage to trigger that. Which makes them safe to melee. You can, in fact, be too powerful for your own good.
In all of act 2, I don't find a single new item. Here are my two best finds for the act:
Yeah, I have all three of the elite unique claws now. But no Bartuc's. This Jade Talon is a better skill roll than my previous one, too.
Somewhere during the act, I swap Azrael's weapon out for a Viperfork. Probably not quite as good in general, but it does some automatic corpse disposal with those Poison Explosion triggers.
Near the end, in the last of the false tombs, I have my first true near-death experience of the run. Heading into a room with a champion pack of Unravelers, their ranged attacks and a melee hit or two drop me down to double digit HP. Briefly. I hit the fat purple button as fast as I could, as well as moving out of the line of fire.
Now, Duriel. Should I lower the players count, since act boss quest drops are guaranteed to have the maximum number of items? Nah. I don't respect him as a threat to melee characters. Walk up. Hold left mouse button until he's dead.
Collect worthless drops.
That level I'm almost at? 86. About 600K XP left, which should come very soon in act 3.
Last edited:
jmerry
Habitué
- Messages
- 59
Act 3 starts nicely. I identify a random small charm in the Spider Forest, and ...
Exactly what this character wants. It directly replaces my Ocher Small Charm of Life. Getting two high-quality affixes on the same charm is so good.
But then, I reach the Flayer Jungle, and enter the Swampy Pit. The first level isn't too bad, but a random doll explosion knocks off a concerningly large chunk of life ...
And then, on the second level, there's a doll pack right at the entrance. No good way yo pull them apart, and I really don't want to take on a bunch of dolls all at once. But I still find a way. I run deeper into the level, portal out, and then return to the main entrance. That pulls the group apart. That first boss turned out to be fire enchanted, but I blocked the explosions. And then I find out that one explosion from a minion doll deals about 350 damage. Three of those could kill me. I really can't take on a group of dolls without the utmost caution.
There are two more doll bosses in the level. Cold/Extra Strong. Fire/Cursed. On that last one, I thankfully managed to leave the kill to Azrael. A double explosion with a curse active might even kill me in a single hit.
At least there weren't any dolls in level 3.
When I reach the Flayer Dungeon, I see more dolls. Nope. I don't want to fight that right now. So instead, I push ahead to the Lower Kurast waypoint and end the session there.
Before returning to the action, I swap a bunch of equipment to bolster my physical resilience.
Rare boots (speed, cold res, poison res) -> Gore Rider
Immortal King's Detail -> Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Stealskull -> Harlequin Crest, spend my Nightmare socket quest and put in a Jewel of Fervor.
Seraph's Hymn -> Mara's Kaleidoscope. Telka was using that one, so she gets a Chromatic Amulet as a poor replacement.
Scintillating Ring of Flame -> Shimmering Ring of the Vampire.
Stalwart Small Charm of Shock -> Shimmering Small Charm.
So now that's 1260 HP and 24% physical resistance. While keeping my other key stats up. Now, I can survive four standard doll explosion hits. I no longer need to be ultra-careful all the time against them - which is good, because there are a lot more dolls in act 3. They are absolutely the most dangerous normal monster type in the game for this sort of melee build without an enormous life pool.
Naturally, on the second time through, the Flayer Dungeon opens up with a cursed doll pack. That's a lot more of a risk; one explosion lands on me while cursed, and deals 631 damage. More than half of my life pool in one hit. Careful play is absolutely required.
Some non-doll boss packs, leading to a cursed ghost with a doll boss after it. Clear up that curse, engage the dolls ... they're cursed too. This level is pain.
Well, at least there aren't any more dolls on level 2 and 3. Another of Khalim's squishy bits is mine.
Perhaps out of residual trauma, I put off the Kurast sewers as long as I reasonably can. And then I get a safe roll - bats, mummies, Horadrim Ancients and skeletons. Though there is another cursed doll boss pack in level 2.
Travincal is slow, with the lightning immune zealots backed by healers. But it's nothing compared to the threat ahead. Dolls on level 1, including a fourth cursed pack this session. More dolls on level 2 - actually, that's the all-undead enemy roll so I only need one offensive aura. And then the level layout is remarkably unkind - I literally explore all but one room before finding the exit:
But hey, at least it's over. And Mephisto is not a problem; once Life Tap lands, the last shred of difficulty is gone.
Nothing special there. The most notable set/unique find for the act was a Blackhorn's Face in Lower Kurast, adding to my collection.
That brings me to act 4. Lots of bulky enemies, spawners to swarm me, but no dolls. Though that doesn't mean no danger - a Doom Knight pack in the Plains of Despair pushes me to drink a purple when Life Tap doesn't trigger. Also, Izual gave me a nice rune (Lum) - will the Hellforge do better?
Yes.
Um runes are always nice. There are just so many good ways to use them.
In the Chaos Sanctuary, the Infector has that layout that traps you behind him. Nope - I open up a town portal in advance, take it, and come back from the main entrance.
Then, for Diablo, I turn the players count down to 1. I certainly could kill him at 5, but this way is faster and the loot is the same.
Very good, as it turns out. That Blade of Ali Baba is new to my collection.
One act left.
Exactly what this character wants. It directly replaces my Ocher Small Charm of Life. Getting two high-quality affixes on the same charm is so good.
But then, I reach the Flayer Jungle, and enter the Swampy Pit. The first level isn't too bad, but a random doll explosion knocks off a concerningly large chunk of life ...
And then, on the second level, there's a doll pack right at the entrance. No good way yo pull them apart, and I really don't want to take on a bunch of dolls all at once. But I still find a way. I run deeper into the level, portal out, and then return to the main entrance. That pulls the group apart. That first boss turned out to be fire enchanted, but I blocked the explosions. And then I find out that one explosion from a minion doll deals about 350 damage. Three of those could kill me. I really can't take on a group of dolls without the utmost caution.
There are two more doll bosses in the level. Cold/Extra Strong. Fire/Cursed. On that last one, I thankfully managed to leave the kill to Azrael. A double explosion with a curse active might even kill me in a single hit.
At least there weren't any dolls in level 3.
When I reach the Flayer Dungeon, I see more dolls. Nope. I don't want to fight that right now. So instead, I push ahead to the Lower Kurast waypoint and end the session there.
Before returning to the action, I swap a bunch of equipment to bolster my physical resilience.
Rare boots (speed, cold res, poison res) -> Gore Rider
Immortal King's Detail -> Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Stealskull -> Harlequin Crest, spend my Nightmare socket quest and put in a Jewel of Fervor.
Seraph's Hymn -> Mara's Kaleidoscope. Telka was using that one, so she gets a Chromatic Amulet as a poor replacement.
Scintillating Ring of Flame -> Shimmering Ring of the Vampire.
Stalwart Small Charm of Shock -> Shimmering Small Charm.
So now that's 1260 HP and 24% physical resistance. While keeping my other key stats up. Now, I can survive four standard doll explosion hits. I no longer need to be ultra-careful all the time against them - which is good, because there are a lot more dolls in act 3. They are absolutely the most dangerous normal monster type in the game for this sort of melee build without an enormous life pool.
Naturally, on the second time through, the Flayer Dungeon opens up with a cursed doll pack. That's a lot more of a risk; one explosion lands on me while cursed, and deals 631 damage. More than half of my life pool in one hit. Careful play is absolutely required.
Some non-doll boss packs, leading to a cursed ghost with a doll boss after it. Clear up that curse, engage the dolls ... they're cursed too. This level is pain.
Well, at least there aren't any more dolls on level 2 and 3. Another of Khalim's squishy bits is mine.
Perhaps out of residual trauma, I put off the Kurast sewers as long as I reasonably can. And then I get a safe roll - bats, mummies, Horadrim Ancients and skeletons. Though there is another cursed doll boss pack in level 2.
Travincal is slow, with the lightning immune zealots backed by healers. But it's nothing compared to the threat ahead. Dolls on level 1, including a fourth cursed pack this session. More dolls on level 2 - actually, that's the all-undead enemy roll so I only need one offensive aura. And then the level layout is remarkably unkind - I literally explore all but one room before finding the exit:
But hey, at least it's over. And Mephisto is not a problem; once Life Tap lands, the last shred of difficulty is gone.
Nothing special there. The most notable set/unique find for the act was a Blackhorn's Face in Lower Kurast, adding to my collection.
That brings me to act 4. Lots of bulky enemies, spawners to swarm me, but no dolls. Though that doesn't mean no danger - a Doom Knight pack in the Plains of Despair pushes me to drink a purple when Life Tap doesn't trigger. Also, Izual gave me a nice rune (Lum) - will the Hellforge do better?
Yes.
Um runes are always nice. There are just so many good ways to use them.
In the Chaos Sanctuary, the Infector has that layout that traps you behind him. Nope - I open up a town portal in advance, take it, and come back from the main entrance.
Then, for Diablo, I turn the players count down to 1. I certainly could kill him at 5, but this way is faster and the loot is the same.
Very good, as it turns out. That Blade of Ali Baba is new to my collection.
One act left.
- Messages
- 1,762
Yeah, my successful Hardcore run with an Assassin depended on the same item, Dracul's Grasp. I also used a Life Tap wand.
Great progress so far, keep it up!
Great progress so far, keep it up!