ACT TWO
Duchess Astra arrives in Lut Gholein at clvl 42. Her vitals:
Strength 75, Dexterity 25, Vitality 85, Energy 110
Meteor @ 17
Blaze @ 11
Warmth @ 9
Fire Mastery @ 7
Firebolt @ 1
Inferno @ 1
Fireball @ 1
Firewall @ 1
Enchant @ 1
Hydra @ 1
Skills +3 (Magefist, Stone, Rare Amulet)
The Stone of Jordan: +1 Skills, +20 Mana, +25% to total mana - gambled Act 1 Hell
Magefist: +1 Fire Tree Skills, +25% Mana Regen, Fastest Cast - gambled Act 3 Normal
Treads of Cthon: Fastest Run, Half Stamina Drain, +10 Life, +50 Missile Defense - Urn in Dry Hills, NM
Wyrm's Wand of Apprentice: +55 Mana, Fast Cast - bought from Ormus in NM
Amber Great Helm of Stability: +48 Lightning Resistance, Fastest Recovery - bought from Hratli in Normal
Gemmed Tower Shield: three perfect Diamonds - completed early in NM
Field Plate of Colossus: +6 Cold Resist, +59 Life - bought from Halbu in NM
Rare Plated Belt: +48 Life, +49 Lit Res, +21 Fire Res, +3 Life Regen, +1 Light, +2 Mana - gambled Act 2 NM
Rare Amulet: +1 Sorcie Skills, +3 Light, +29 Cold Resist, +37 Lit Res, +1 Mana - Hephasto in NM
Rare Ring: Half Freeze, +23 Poison Res, +16 Cold Res, +7 Lit Res, +14 Mana, +22 Life - Cain Reward in NM
Ruby wand of Magus: +42 Fire Resist, Fastest Cast - bought from Jamella in Normal
Amulet: -3 Magic Damage, +16 Lightning Resistance - gambled Act 2 NM
Ring: +41 Lightning Resist, +38 Life - found Act 4 Normal
Nagelring, Manald Heal, Hotspur, assorted jewelry for possible alternate configurations, lots of rejuvs.
The Sewers of Lut Gholein illustrate the power of meteor better than any comparison I could write. For Hotfoot, I had to stack the blaze hard and high, work my tail off, and slay archers with hydras around corners. The risks were not inconsiderable at times, when a large pack of burning axes came calling.
For Astra, I dropped four or five rocks on their heads. Battle over. Sometimes three for melee burners, and let them finish themselves on the afterflames.
Now there is one other difference. For Astra, she has slvl 17+3 meteor at this point, then 18+3 by level two, then 19+3 after Radament (although that's getting ahead of myself). Hotfoot, at this point, had only slvl 11 or 12 Hydra. So in some ways this is not a fair comparison, but that too is part of the problem. You get a six skill point head start for Meteor over Hydra, which means nothing if you level slowly, repeat areas, and don't come to Hell difficulty until clvl 50. For my direct get-down-to-business methods, it makes a great deal of difference. Astra is not having a cakewalk (just check out all those deadly bosses from act one) but she is munching through the normal critters at a markedly faster pace.
For example, below you see the first ED in this session:
That was a dried corpse boss. He was apparently CEB, from the frost nova he emitted, that's all I know.
I had found the stairs on level two and skipped looking for the waypoint. Level three had mages, which died in fewer shots, and cats, which couldn't hit the floor fast enough. I think some died of fright before the rocks even landed. Heh. Then again, some died in blaze patches, chasing me, because they were too speedy to wait for meteors, and I keep blaze running all the time, unless there is some vital strategic reason to shut it down -- which does happen. In fact, it happened right here:
I got into the corner, found Radament, saw that he was Multiple Shots Lightning Enchanted, and went on an Ember crusade to rid him of all his minions. (An Ember crusade? Yes, I mentioned it last chapter: like Ember in Tal Rasha's tomb vs the burning dead, work two different areas, back and forth, so that most bodies in each area will vanish before you press on to the next fight). Thus, I slew most of Rad's turkeys, then went back up to level two to find the waypoint. When I returned, only a couple bodies left in the Radament corner, but still a few live minions. Slay those, then back up to level two for more action there. Oops, level two has now been cleared. Hmm. Well, I had taken the back door on level one and skipped 95% of it, so... up to level one to do some fighting. Back to Radament, finally, and there are just a couple of minions around, and plenty of hall space cleaned for the fight. Let's get it on.
That picture is captioned, "Don't let my mouse choose NOW to stop functioning, please. Thank you."
By the by, that name is pasted in from a different screenshot. I was not stopping to point to him with five waves of white death swirling my way. He's almost dead at that point, not full health as shown. I had been dropping rocks on his head for some time. No fire resistance for him, though. He can't have his fire res and his MSLEB, too. Ha! So he did not last all that long. But him walking through patches of meteor flame sent waves of sparks flying.
I still have not fought an MSLEB with a melee char. I really need to get some of my softcore melee chars into Hell difficulty, as there are holes in my game, some fights I haven't tried the hard way, some situations I do not know how to handle without a ranged attack. But I digress.
I went ahead and cleared the last half of level three. Burning mages, huntresses, and dried corpses did not make for tedious foes, so might as well grab the experience. I will be skipping plenty of fights and areas, so pick up the easy XP where I can. However, I did not go back to level one to finish it. Heh.
The Rocky Waste opened with two boss packs, one spear cat, one leaper. This got to be a lively fight, torn between standing in my hydra patch to keep leapers off me, and having to dodge javelins.
Nothing has fire resistance in this part of the game. Vultures and cats faced instant death upon meteor impact. One shot, everything in that area dead. Except for leapers. Those are tougher. Hydras to pin them against something is the best tactic, then drop rocks on the stunned ones, end of fight. Or... hydras to keep them at arm's length in open space, and drop rocks at the edge of hydrashot range. Not as efficient, more misses for various reasons, but it works well enough.
Stony Tomb, one rock for horrors, two for burning mages. Creeping Feature had fire resistance, but he is slow, and slow foes aren't much threat, as long as you don't get lazy.
On to Dry Hills, where two boss packs greeted me at the entrance: a FEB Holy Shock Extra Strong leaper and a Cursed potion-throwing spear cat. What a combination! I led that leaper back to the Waste for disposal. Had to separate that pair, as I did NOT want to be risking one-hit death to a freakin leaper. Sorry, no tourist pix, this was a serious engagement. I trapped that leaper up against a wall with hydras and rained the rocks down on his head in unending numbers. Emptied the mana ball and actually drank a blue I had picked up to rain still more on him, as well as gulping reds to heal Holy Shock damage. Then he blew up. Splat. Another dire threat ended.
I found the Halls entrance right there, but went looking for the waypoint. Vultures, leapers, and sabre cats, MREOWW-OW, Fisk-Fisssssssk, OW-OW, ROWL. Heh. Those things trip me out. :)
I heard some leapers clucking below the cliff, and some cats growling, so I opened up a can of Whoop-Hydras on them:
Ever notice how each spell has its own animation process? I really noticed it here, because Ember's firebolt has that five-pointed-star effect, and I saw plenty of that, let me tell you. Meteors and hydras have a more rounded fire animation.
Found the waypoint, so time for Halls of the Dead. Yep, why not? Nothing fire resistant down there, so it will die in one hit. Whole armies of Returned could be wiped out. Astra would mop the floor with their bones. I've got hydras to scout, or fight inside the next room for me, so the only real risk down there is a multishot or extra strong Hollow One or Spear Cat boss. I would be careful.
Long story short, no problems down there. I got to the last room on level three, the Cube chamber, and weighed whether or not to tackle Bloodwitch. She'd have to hit me twice to kill me, and unless she drew either FE or MR, she would lack resistance and hit the floor VERY quickly. Yeah, what the hey. I'm feelin lucky today!
MREOWW-OW, Fisk-Fisssssssk, OW-OW, ROWL. Heh. She died in my blaze. I only know what abilities she drew by the sounds I heard: sparks flying, and nova blast on death. She was CE/LE to go with her innate ES/Cur. Technically, that qualifies as an ED, too. I never got a look at her. :)
Check it out! Level up, and Meteor now maxed. With slvl 7+3 mastery and 20+3 meteors, check out that damage factor. Against nonresistant foes, it's almost sickeningly strong here in single player. A meteor-based fire sorcie, with a lil static help for resistant foes, and some teleport and defense (blaze, gs), would easily be able to solo in full games, without any need for constant static spamming.
She would probably HAVE to solo, too, as people's machines can't handle a long blaze trail and a rain of meteors. And that new spell timer they are putting on Meteor in the Xpack... Blizz thinks that will FIX the problem created by the overdone graphics of the fire tree? Ha! Maybe a Meteor/GS sorcie will be less reviled, but a Meteor/Blaze sorcie will still be shunned, I promise you.
Anyway...
Far Oasis == lots of one shot kill bugs and crows (two shots for some mother maggots, though), and two different fire resistant beetle bosses. Astra mopped up.
Check out my new toy:
Blah to that fashion look. I know caps looked good on Ember, but Astra wants to become the Queen of Fire, and queens, well, they wear crowns or great helms, not, uh... caps. On the other hand, a true queen would wear what works best, so... Astra bit the fashion bullet and wore the ugly cap through the poison-infested Lost City and Ancient Tunnels, and on through the Viper Temple.
Watching six vipers at a time hit the floor in one shot... I was almost giggling. That kind of power might get boring after a while, but it's actually been quite some time since I played a char who could speed kill, and the threat levels are still very high to Astra, who has no chilling, no teleport, and can run into problems at any moment with some fire resistant boss.
I used hydra to scout everything in the Viper Temple. Hydras would wake the hordes of snakes and I could drop a rock every so often at the door, to wipe out the next oncoming wave. Piece of cake, but still no time to get lazy.
Now one thing I have learned about Viper Level Two: it is bad bad BAD if you fail to commit. Standing in that opening area invites disaster every time. I have not yet safely won a fight there in NM or Hell with a ranged char. The method that works best for me is to run in there, on a beeline for the top corner, and only then to assess the threat levels and decide whether or not to fight, run, or bail. As such, in Hardcore, I always pack up my essentials in town and carry them with me, leaving one open spot for the amulet in case I have to run to the altar, grab it and get out.
Astra smashed the foes with no problem, but only because I moved aggressively.
The merc then occupied Fangy long enough for my rocks to sucker punch that sneaky snake.
Ah, cool. Made it through, and now I can take off that silly cap! YES! Astra felt good to have her proper fashion back. Into the Harem, no problems there. Plenty of archers, but after the grind of Skeletorr dealing with them, it felt really really good to drop a rock and smash whole squads of them. Splat!
Been gambling boots for a long time now. Still nothing good. In fact, if not for kicking that urn in NM, from which popped my Treads, Astra would be running around in the saddest rares you've ever seen, with things like +1 dex, +gold and magic find, and +6 lightning resistance, which she didn't need anyway. So I kept on gambling boots. I also tried for armors, with both quilted and leather. So I now had Gorefoot, Greyform, Blinkbat, and Hotspur. Won't be able to keep them all when I quit this session, so I started gambling myself broke (down to 10k) after every level up. One shopping spree spent 450k in gold. What did I get for it? Well, I got that cap, which you've seen. That was good. I got close on some boots. Here are the runners up, in the "Close but No Cigar" category:
That fire resist boot was sweeeet, but just not acceptable without fastest run. 15 mana and 29 life wasn't enough to give up fastest run either. Oh well, Cinderella's search for the glass slipper marches on.
Down on level three of the palace, a desert ape ED boss:
Astra got into the middle room without going through Fire Eye, and that was fine with me.
Now for the tough Hell clan swarms in the Arcane. You may recall from reading other reports on my site, I had developed some theories about how to locate the Summoner by observing the layout. Well, those theories have all bitten the dust. Some inconsistencies in the results shot holes in all my hypotheses. I am left with the conclusion that I can make educated guesses and beat the average odds by a little bit, but sometimes it backfires. So it goes.
My best guess this time led up one of the two tougher paths, so I ignored my own guess and cleared the teleporter quadrant first. Here you see some unsuspecting goats wondering about those orange circles under their feet.
The good news? Four or five rocks would kill a whole mob of goats. Three might do it if I let them wiggle around in the flames. With blaze help at times it only took one or two rocks to finish them. This provided the greatest contrast of all to Hotfoot, who had to do tons of careful footwork to kill most things with blaze, or stack her hydras or firewalls and empty her mana ball to kill those safely held at bay by the terrain. Astra did not have a cakewalk here, but she merely had extra work, instead of dire threats to manage. Ghouls took two shots to kill. I was also VERY careful not to repeat the bonehead move I pulled on poor Hotfoot that got her mugged in the teleporting quadrant.
Next I cleared out the winding quadrant. No Summoner there, either. Oh well. I did find the one boss encounter that is always present somewhere in the sanctuary.
Down now to the last two quadrants. My guess had been the stairs quadrant, to the north, so I headed on up there, clearing only as much as necessary to stay safe (one side only). To my shock, the Summoner was not at the end of that line either! Gah. I've now full-cleared two quadrants, most of the third, and I still have to face the nasty straight quadrant.
Luckily for Astra, that area was light on population, compared to normal. Even so, had to stack the blaze to handle the goats, supplemented by some rock throwing.
Ended up having to clear about eighty percent of the Arcane. Even so, nothing as remotely threatening as those act one multishot and extra strong bosses scattered all over. Still plenty of risk to manage in the Arcane, but I'm well experienced with that now.
Check it out: Summoner dead, slain by hydras from offscreen. :)
Also note that the meteor damage is lower, and my fire resistance at 70. I had to switch two items in favor of defense: my Ruby wand to get resistance up, and that -3 MD ammy, instead of my +skill rare, to negate the firewall damage. Thus, a lot of mana, some cold res, and one skill adder sacrificed. No complaints here, as Astra lived. That's the measure of success, right? It's all good.
I ended that game session after grabbing the last waypoint.
The next time I played, I cleared out the Canyon of Hell Slingers, Crushers, and maggots. Maggot armies go squish in one hit. Lots of bugs, though, so it took two or three rocks to create a wall to wall carpet of dead insect offspring. Mother bugs required two hits, or one hit and some flame exposure, but Astra wasn't hurtin for mana, so generally I dropped a pair of rocks.
Not bothering with the False Tombs for once. Astra is going to push ahead, get out of Dodge, and skip the gunfights with all those hordes of Unravellers.
In fact, I enter the True Tomb and encounter Ghoul Lords (back to fire res/-MD setup), Gorebellies, and Preserved mummies. I kid you not! No burning dead! What a dream draw for a Hot Babe (unless you were looking for the challenge). So with that mix, of course I decided to full clear the tomb. Why not? I didn't find the orifice until near the end anyway.
Check out the ES Cursed FEB:
I played that one carefully, stayed alive. Took some work. First tough boss I've seen in a while.
Not long after, I ran into ED again.
ED's incarnation this time? An apparition boss dumb enough to fly into a corner. He was LEB, that's all I know (from the sparks).
Still some more area in the tomb to clear. Almost done now... ah, done. Picked up a lot of XP in that tomb. Astra is close to clvl 47 now.
Then a new threat developed: a bad thunderstorm rolling into my area. Oops. Now all that lollygagging in the canyon and tomb has backfired on me. I don't have the staff! I have to run and do the maggots, if I am to get Duriel. There is risk of power outage or flicker that could cut me off. That's not dire, but it would mean the loss of my hidurare uniques on the ground in town, along with a few of my spare rejuvs. Seeing as how I do not yet have a satisfactory armor or boot, I wanted to avoid losing those uniques. They represent well over 100k in gold for replacement costs, and losing them might deprive me of the rares I am looking for.
Could I outplay the thunderstorm? My oh my. And more to the point, is it even wise to try? I'd have to rush, and rushing could make me careless, could even get me killed. Maybe I should just pack in, quit now, and redo my way to the orifice next time. Hmm. Then again, do I really want to slug through burning dead?
"Feeling lucky today, punk?"
Yeah. I suppose I am.
Jump to the Oasis, double boss pack at the waypoint. Beetle and Itchies, both FEB. Joy. That almost got hairy, with me in a hurry. Sprinting now across the oasis, the maggot lair way on the far side. Dropping rocks on swarms of bugs, have to be careful. Blaze a few, grab some XP here or there. Down into the maggot hole now, and hurrying, hurrying. I hear rumbles in the distance, in real life.
Oh geeze, a beetle boss in my way. A tough customer, too, with extra strong and magic resistance. Finally smashed him, but two minutes lost. And wait! It ain't over yet. A maggot boss in the same area. Oh good grief. I can see flashes of white outside my window. The rumbles are coming several seconds later, but I'm already into the risk, as the power could take a hit at any moment.
Another Extra Strong Magic Resistant boss? OH COME ON! Dammit.
I had to be careful with that beetle, and just as careful with this maggot. The ES MR twins. Ugh.
Found my way to level two, finally. Oh good grief. Does the game KNOW I am in a hurry???
Once again, the way down not found until most of the level clear. Thanks, D2, for your cooperation. Heh.
On the up side, once I reached level three, I almost immediately wiggled through the options to the queen maggot's chamber. I have become adept at finding it.
LOOK! A ROOMFUL OF SQUISHIES!
Rock on, little buggies, rock on!
I left over 20k worth of crap on the floor in that chamber. A crack of lightning, the thunder report two seconds later telling me the storm is here. Oh well, forget that treasure. I've got to get to Duriel!
Sprinting through the Canyon, listening to the thunder rumbling, feeling the vibrations in my house, listening to the rain start to pour. Oh please please hurry.
By all rights, I should take two minutes and level up. It would be safer!
No time.
Hire a sacrificial merc, don my highest hit points configuration, begin the dance.
Round and round, round and round.
MUST... BE... CAREFUL...
Refresh only when there is time to cast a new blaze without opening myself to a charge.
Round and round, round and round.
MUST... BE... CAREFUL...
Lightning flashing, thunder rumbling, rain pouring, heart thumping, Sirian sweating.
Round and round, round and round.
MUST... BE... CAREFUL...
Whew.
Heavy sigh of relief! Oh and check it out: 3k XP short of clvl 47. Heh. Astra will level up on the Wanderer's pups outside of Kurast. That will be a first.
Grab the crappy uberdrop, run to see Tyrael. "Sorry big guy, no time to chat, call me later. K? Cya."
Run to town, sell drops, pick up uniques... oops, no room for them all. Which to leave behind? Ah, hmm. Blinkbat it is. Sold to Fara. Pick up rejuvs. Save and Exit.
Thirty seconds later, the power flickered from a bad stroke of lightning. My computer was already turned off. I just grinned and grinned. It was a good day!
Astra will see you in Act Three.
- Sirian
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