HELL DIFFICULTY

Bluebonnet began Hell at clvl 39 with the following skills/stats/equipment:

Blizzard @ 16
Glacial Spike @ 16
Cold Mastery @ 8
Shiver Armor @ 1
Frozen Orb @ 1
Ice Blast @ 1
Frost Nova @ 1
Frozen Armor @ 1
Ice Bolt @ 1

Str 60, Dex 25, Vit 65, Nrg 130, Life 377, Mana 544

Resistances, mediocre at best. Cold Tree skills only.

Amber Helm of Colossus, +38 Lit Resist, +46 Life - bought from Fara in NM
Garnet Breastplate of Colossus: +21 Fire Resist, +58 Life - bought from Fara in NM
Dragon's War Scepter of the Magus, +37 mana - bought from Ormus in Normal
Gothic Shield, gemmed with one perf D: +17-19 resists - Act 4 NM after the Hell Forge
Rare Greaves: +44 Fire Resist, +22 Lit Resist, +26 Life, Faster Run - found Act 3 temple, Normal
Rare Plated Belt: +9 Fire Resist, +16 Life, +14 Strength, +83% Gold - found Lower Kurast, Normal
Frostburn: gambled at clvl 39, in extra innings so to speak (due to crashes) in Act 4 NM
Prismatic Amulet, +17-24 to all Resists - Maffer Dragonhand, Act 3 NM
Sapphire Ring of Might, +42 Cold Resist, +5 Strength - gambled Act 4 NM
Wyrm's Ring of Thawing, +51 mana, Half Freeze Dur - found Act 2 NM, Arcane Sanctuary

Assorted jewelry, rare boots with fastest run and fastest hit recovery, and plated belt +41 life, held in reserve for particular situations. One flawless diamond. Lots of full rejuvs, and a Nagelring.

Imbues Used: Nightmare. Normal Imbue remains available, as will Hell Imbue.

Imbue Result: nada, Cuirass armor sold for 25k

Strength help needed to wear those rare Greaves.

Bluebonnet on a Complete Game Run, full-clearing all areas of all difficulties once each, parking as few monsters and redoing as few areas as humanly possible from game to game. Deaths so far: zero.

ACT ONE

As a result of three nasty game crashes in NM Act 4 that forced me to redo large sections of that act each time just to advance, Bluebonnet had lost an imbuable mage plate, some uniques on the ground (chance at hidurares when gambling), all her surplus potions, and was more than a whole level of experience ahead of where she would have been without the crashes. That is significant in that she was getting more experience per creature as a result, so would likely remain at least one level ahead of the usual full-clear pace.

Blizzard had finally replaced Glacial Spike as primary skill, as of NM Act 4, and that continued here. Critters in the Blood Moor, Den and Cold Plains were all slow enough to die without protest inside one to three blizzards. I did have to maneuver Bluebonnet a bit to keep them inside at times, primarily using the circular maneuver, running round and round a target so they continually remain exposed. That proved problematic in the Cave, where speedy rogues, low light radius, and lack of room combined to push me to using lots of GS there. And you know what? GS didn't do too badly. Sure, it wasn't as mana efficient, but I could often round up a mob or delay some re-shots in order to bunch groups together and hit three, four, five at a time. Even two at a time nearly doubled mana efficiency. I still used blizzards, too, at times... particularly against large mobs, bosses, or to blanket an area ahead of me where targets seemed likely to be.

Frostburn was making a huge difference, not only in total mana, but mana recovery rate, too. It would have been a lot tougher to continue to use frequent GS without the Frosties. It would also have been really nice to get hold of those Frosties earlier than clvl 39! Good grief. Bluebonnet had had some pretty bad gambling and item-finding luck right up until the end of Nightmare, when the Hell Forge dropped a perf diamond (the only one found in the entire NM run) and Frosties finally came in. The lone exception with item luck was hitting on Wall of Eyeless so early. That shield was gone now, mostly obsolete and replaced at last by a diamond-socketed shield. And luck there was about to take another positive turn!

In the Stony Field, I found a diamond, then not ten seconds later found a Gem Shrine. I upgraded my flawless and now had two diamonds socketed, plus I had a diamond to upgrade if I should find another gem shrine -- which I did! Right there in Stony! The second shrine was on the other side of the field, and gave me a net result in this one section of finding a perf diamond. So from Hell Forge NM to Stony Field Hell, Bluebonnet picked up two perfs and now needed only one more Gem Shrine (or six diamonds, if by chance...) to complete her shield.

Down on level two of the UGP, I ran afoul of this raven-haired, riven-hearted beauty:

Now as you may know, the second level of each Act 1 Cave has a fixed layout and fixed encounter types. There are always boss or champ packs in certain spots, always fallen-type shamen with guards in certain spots, the same dead rogues and chests and areas of gold on the floor each game. And down at the bottom of the UGP, there are always two fallen shamen plus fallens packs right at the stairs, a boss pack and dead rogue down the stairs on the left, and some random encounter down the stairs on the right. This rogue boss comes charging me immediately while I have stacked blizzards all over the place to kill the fallens. The net result was one very close call. Had to drink two rejuvs and might have died without that second diamond.

Rescued Cain without incident, reward was junk and I sold it.

Now Hotfoot had had it superbly easy up until the Tower, then drew THE WORST possible boss encounter on level 1 and died before she knew what hit her. Bluebonnet by contrast had not only the close call in the UGP, but honestly several other boss encounters indoors that posed moderate to high threats. Yet when she got to the tower, it was almost deserted. No encounters at all on level 2! Lightweight foes everywhere else. The Hole was pretty easy, too. Then in the Highland:

I actually was forced back to town for a mana recharge TWICE to take that guy out. What a PITA! :)

Used lots and lots and lots of blizz in the highland. Really large mobs of rogues and skels and several bosses. Pit and Cloister were routine, but I had several close calls with goats in the Barracks despite primary use of GS and lots of "scouting" or "killing zones" at or beyond doors as precautions. Once again, the visibility problem reared its head with blizz indoors and some goats charged right through and caught me by surprise. Hotfoot's pets and blaze made this area much MUCH easier for her, but so it goes. Even the Smith got some brutal licks in on Bluebonnet and forced some drinking.

The jail was no picnic either. Bone Warrior types have some cold resistance, which isn't devastating, but does mean they chill for less time and take longer to kill by a bit. Bluebonnet took serious wounds from archers that Hotfoot had easily avoided, slaying with Hydra. Then down on level two of the jail, Bluebonnet rounds a corner, takes a MASS of hits that instantly drops her to ZERO mana and about 50 life.

I drank a rejuv of course, and took more hits before I could duck back around the corner. YIKES! I then tried peeking out and casting some blizzards, but goshdarnit, the skels were ALL right up against the wall and not taking ANY hits. And I was undergoing SERIOUS risk (and damage) every time I stuck my nose out there. GS was not even remotely an option. What was a sorcie to do??? Well I came up with a plan, but first I took one more reckless exposure to grab that screenshot above. Then...

That's right! Put that slvl 1 Frozen Orb to work! Shoot past the corner and let a couple ice bolts do damage in bits and pieces. HUGELY mana inefficient, but I just drank some blues and lesser purples, and also did some waiting for mana to recharge on its own, until the last of those bastards (the boss) finally croaked.

This was an enormous close call, and might have been deadly with a little worse luck. But no, not yet. My Ice Kitten here was still alive, and still hopeful of making a Queen's Run, all the way to 3dots with no deaths.

My problems in the jail were not yet over:

Those plus Pitspawn, made for a total of four nasty and highly dangerous boss fights on levels two and three of the Jail. Bluebonnet had a fairly routine run the rest of the way to Andariel.

DoE-H) Cold Mastery @ 9
40-42) Blizzard @ 17-19

Net gain in items of one perfect diamond. I made three rejuvs from Andi's gems, replacing a few of the ones I had used. Next up, Act Two.

- Sirian

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