Act One

Ember's travel's began unremarkably, following a path tread by many before her. Like any Fire Sorcie, she cleared out the Moor with firebolt and a few swings of her staff, added her first level up to Energy and Firebolt, went into the Den and added her second skill point to Warmth. Even adding her second stat boost all to Energy is not unusual, and it did allow her to shoot more, swing less.

With more mana than I am used to having at this point (I often add five to Strength in the first two level ups for sorcies), Corpsefire was dead remarkably quickly. I normally wouldn't go into any great detail through the first act, but Ember is Hardcore, so any close calls she endures are a roll of the dice, a Russian Roulette.

Ember's power curve exceeded the norm at first. Entering the Cold Plains, clvl 4, Firebolt at slvl 3+1 and lots of energy, she just mowed em down. One shot, one kill.

It didn't take long to notice the added vulnerability of no shield, no helm, no armor. Cracked sash, crude leather gloves and no boots yet gave me the incredible DR of 2, so anything that got next to me had a good chance at landing a blow. I decided to increase Vitality a bit with my next two level ups (normally I would have already done so at least once -- and by the way, I almost always add all five points to one stat. The only exceptions come when a target for Str or Dex will be met without using all the points, and I add the extra to Vitality).

Ember's Firebolt against Bishibosh's Fireball. Care to wager on who won this duel? :)

Hardcore is unforgiving to those who take risks and perform full clears. Nevertheless, I plan to completely clear out the game in Normal Difficulty with Ember. I know all the risks and believe I can manage them. If I get her to Nightmare, that will be a different story! But we'll cross that bridge if we come to it....

I was NOT going to fight Coldcrow without more vitality, so I wiped the Plains clear and moved cautiously in the Cave until reaching clvl 5. The good news, my firebolt Strength would really sting her. The bad news: even Coldcrow can hit a target with 2 DR and no blocking. I used care and had no problems.

Archer bosses are the nemesis of sorcies, believe it or not. Hotfoot's one-shot-400-life-to-dead demise at the hands of a Multishot archer boss in Hell Forgotten Tower really hammered that one home to me. The problem is much worse to a staff-using sorcie. Characters like this sassy little boss can be dangerous in NM and particularly Hell, when multiple abilities can lead to lethal combinations:

Ember won't be a spelunker in Nightmare, no thank you. :) Never know what's hiding in those dank caves!

Blood Raven did not approve of Ember's high Firebolt. She growled, hissed and cursed, then died. Kashya assigned me a rogue named Aliza, who had high defense, cold arrow, and what appeared to be high hit points as well. I vowed to take care of her as best I could.

Ember and Aliza made a good team, probably the most useful Act 1 merc I've ever had. Or maybe I've just learned how to best utilize them after all this time. Our first test was passed without any great effort:

With Aliza's help, the crypt and mausoleum were quickly cleaned out. Rakanishu the great slayer of mercs was waiting for us just inside the Stony Field, but he died to three shots of Firebolt and that was the end of that. I bought a glowing of fox leather gloves (+2 light, +8 life) and a snake's sash of fox (+8 each mana/life), but still no boots. Even so, Ember now had a goodly number of life points, plenty of mana and a strong Firebolt (slvl 5+1). The rest of the Stony Field was routine, and the UGP was easier than usual.

Emerging in the Dark Wood, Aliza and Ember continued their steady, safe progress. Lots and lots and lots and lots of Carvers to deal with, but Ember's growing mana pool combined with one shot kills on them (two shots for shamen) kept them at bay. Ember had to watch out for Aliza, as she got into trouble a couple of times, but when it really counted Aliza did well. In the shot below, she was watching my back and fighting off chasing Carvers as I dealt with this boss:

Aliza had a very close call with Treefist. He quite nearly smashed her, and would have if Ember's shots hadn't done him in so quickly. Ah, but that's what you want a merc to do: take the bullet for you against a tough boss. Aliza did a splendid job there and I was even able to save her.

On to Tristram, and already we are encountering our fourth LEB? Hmm...

Yep, that's Aliza bravely distracting that wicked boss to allow me to escape. You can see Gris closing in on us from below, as well. Ember retreated to safer ground, pulling Aliza out of the fire, and they made a stand, taking out the LEB without any serious loss of health. Ember then proceeded to put out Gris's lights with just ONE minor mana potion used. How many sorcies can claim THAT in Act One Normal? :)

After freeing Cain, Ember and Aliza met with Akara to discuss strategy.

(Also known as "give me my reward ring, you old bat" hehe)

Not much left to do in the Dark Wood. This seemed as good a time as any to call it a night.

Ember's second session quickly led her and Aliza to the Black Marsh, where our fifth LEB awaited.

Once again, as you can see, Aliza performed well, slowing down those incoming goats (and absorbing a few sparks) while I tackled the boss. I love this screenie! Shots flying, formation holding, foes dying. :)

The Hole was uneventful and Ember emerged at clvl 11, with slvl 10+1 Firebolt. So far so good, and now time to tackle the Countess's curs. Below you see a fight that proved tougher than it had any right to be. I've said it before, I'll say it again: if it's fast, it's a threat!

The rest of the tower, including even the FEB Countess, offered no significant challenge. Aliza and Ember rolled along, methodically clearing out the Highland. Some foes no longer one shot kills at this point, but Ember could shoot twice at the same target, she discovered to her delight. :)

Down in the Pit, and here comes LEB #6:

If it's slow, it's not much threat (except perhaps in groups, in tight places). We took care of this LEB and the rest of level one. Level two in the pit is always lively, with at least two bosses (sometimes three) and several devil kin packs complete with shamen, in what amounts to a walk-in closet. But you know, one of the few really strong benefits of Firebolt is its long range (the other is the low mana cost, which does not increase as more skill points are added, making it highly mana efficient). I stood near the top of the area and fired blindly, taking out several targets from range, waking others and eliminating them before they could close. The fight was brutal and quickly ended.

Aliza and I wandered into the Outer Cloister, and Black Rogues were dying in one shot, woohoo! Ember now clvl 13, with 12+1 Firebolt and damage at about 20 per shot. I killed some Spike Fiends from long range and that was entertaining. Tried some gambles for boots in town but only turned up one 25% reduce poison duration and one Fast Recovery. Kept the latter.

Into the Barracks and we found the Smith before long. He took some nasty chunks out of Aliza but I managed to pull her out of there. We ran back through the Barracks toward the Cloister, fatty in tow, Ember firing off shots now and then. He was taking good damage, but without extra speed on boots or any fast cast items, Ember was vulnerable and took a few hits, drank some reds. Smith died finally, and Aliza was still alive, so I figured she might even last to the Cathedral or beyond.

I was wrong. After returning the Malus in town, our very next fight opened up some rogue champs. Ember had to do some happy feet to get out of there in one piece, but the champs trapped Aliza and she couldn't get away, and, well, Ember was NOT going back in THERE, sorry. Poor Aliza. I think I almost developed some fondness for her! It was time to take vengeance on her killers:

At the back end of the Barracks, by the stairs, I ran afoul of a teleporting goat boss. That wasn't too bad in itself, but during the fight I woke up another trio of rogue champs and was being pursued through some tight spaces by a pack of very speedy and hard-hitting monsters. I honestly should have bailed from this fight by going down the stairs, and either forgetting about them entirely or going back to the OC waypoint and coming at them fresh with room to fall back. Instead I took them on, fought them right there:

The result? Ember survived, but it was QUITE the lively engagement complete with close calls and a nearly empty belt. There are times when I wonder if the most dangerous thing about 10 strength is having to live with a two-row belt. This is the first time I have ever done that and I miss the extra belt slots very much.

I was reminded of playing Bluebonnet there: close calls in Normal Act One? Sheesh. But it serves as a reminder not to get too cocky. There's little room for bad judgement in Hardcore.

The Jail was a bit lonely with Aliza, but I had to move on. There was no replacing her, either. (I could give some spiel about sentiment, but truth is I'm just too cheap to hire another one).

One thing that contributed to my close call in the Barracks, believe it or not, is my upgrade to a new computer with 256MB RAM, double CPU power, and much much faster hard drive. How can this be? No more Voodoo 2 for me. No more Glide, with it's nice pastel colors, softer contrast and higher visibility. I had to switch to either D3D or software mode, and either way same difference: dark dark dark screen now, with dark shadows, and I can't pump up the gamma or all the bright things glare too much and that's even worse.

I can tell you flat out, the value of +Light Radius items has vastly increased. I almost consider them essential gear now, in indoor situations. Even with +4 total LR, I still almost got into deep troubles. That would not have happened to me under Glide, but so it goes. I will adapt, I will survive.

After carefully clearing the Jail, the IC, the church, I ran into my seventh LEB in the Cats.

I had a few lively fights here. It was time to start adapting to the idea of not taking on too much at once, since I can only harm one foe at a time, and the time will come when my damage stops increasing but their health keeps on going up and up and up.

I found a spider boss on Cats lvl 2, figured I'd take it's picture. Good grief, this screenie almost cost me my life! Dang thing turned out to be cursed and he and his brood nearly trapped me in a corner.

Level three was routine, until near the end when I ran into a boss who gave me a heck of a fight. Not only was he Fire Enchanted, but being a ghoul type he could heal himself by hurting me, which he did over and over. I was never in any great peril, but the fight took ten times longer than most boss pack engagements.

As you can see, I caught a screenie of his death explosion in progress. Very satisfying moment. :)

My plan for Andariel was to fire at her from long range, soften her up before she could reach me. Now that she properly has -50% Fire Resistance (instead of the buggy maxed resistance prior to v1.04) I expected this fight to go quickly. And how! She was over half dead from my offscreen shots before she even got to the doors, and a bit of hit and run in the front room soon finished her off.

One boss down, three to go. Ember will see you in Act Two.

- Sirian

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