Act Two

Ember began Act Two at clvl 15 with the following skills, stats and equipment:

Firebolt @ 14 (+1 from staff)
Warmth @ 1

Str 10, Dex 25, Vit 45, Nrg 70

Glowing Leather Gloves of Fox: +2 Light, +8 Life - bought from Charsi
Snake's Sash of Fox: +8 Mana, +8 Life - bought from Charsi
Boots: Fast Hit Recovery - gambled Act 1
Staff: +1 Firebolt - Initial Gear
Glowing Ring: +2 Light - Cain Quest reward
Ring: +6 Fire Resistance, -1 damage - Bishibosh
Amulet: +2 Life - random drop in Stony Field
No helm or armor (helm forbidden, too weak for armors with 10 Str)

Remembering how helpful Aliza had been, Ember began Act 2 by hiring Greiz's best available man, Jemali, a stout warrior with strong life, high defense, and poison resistance. Cost over a grand.

Down into the Sewer they went, and first thing they ran into was a pack of burning archers. Jemali went right to work doing what mercs are supposed to do: take the bullet for you. He did a good job of that, I assure you, but after he and Ember (mostly Ember) killed five or six archers, he was in bad bad shape. Luckily, some items dropped, so back to town they went, sold the stuff, got healed. Then it was back down for more punishment.

Jemali did slightly better in his second fight, but once again it was back to town with a few junk items to get another healing for Jemali. We get back down into the sewer and run into a goodly swarm of burning dead with axes. We fell back a bit, then some more, then I tried to run and Jemali was blocking the way out, that blockhead. Oh good grief, LOOK AT THIS MESS. Ember has four axemen on her hacking away at her impressive 12 DR (even skeletons can hit that) and she's drinking potions one after another because she's trapped now, firing away at these resistant targets.

Jemali got QUITE the scolding for that blunder. He's no Aliza and that's a fact.

These burning dead were definitely NOT dying in one shot, so that alone made them "tougher" than just about anything from Act One -- at least for Ember with her one fire skill. She kept Jemali alive through the rest of level one and most of level two, but then he bit it. Poor guy. He was no Aliza!

Radament was not particularly tough, but he wasn't easy, either, by any stretch of the imagination. Ember had to lure away his minions and such, but the speedy ones refused to follow until Ember did much coaxing. Rad kept raising ones on the edge of his vision (he wandered out of his cubby hole twice, then went back in after having raised five or six skels). Finally Ember just charged in there, ignoring the last few skels entirely and just taking her licking while she dished it out -- almost reminded me of D1 Hell, where you just about HAD to take some magic damage and just accept it, to get the job done most times.

Out to the Rocky Waste and two boss packs at the gate. Much easier fight than anything in the Sewer though, thanks to lack of Fire Resistance out here. Found the Stony Tomb before long and ventured down there to give old Creepy the business.

Cleaned up the Waste with no problems, then on to the Hills. Cats were a one-shot kill. Vultures mostly so, but a few would take a second shot. Leapers took more than one shot. I started to wonder if this might be a theme I'd encounter, with monster health staying just ahead of the curve, and certain monsters (maybe even a lot of monsters) requiring two shots because my firebolt was two or three levels too low to kill them in one blast. Hmm...

Clvl 16 now, and the cash is starting to build up, time for some more gambles. First try I got the Hand of Broc and switched to that. Still only level one Warmth at the moment, and though my mana pool was growing it was still possible for me to run it dry in big fights. So +20 mana (and +10 Poison Resist) wasn't a bad tradeoff for +2 Light and 8 life. That, and I needed to hold on to Broc permanently, or I'd just be rolling it over and over as I continued to gamble gloves looking for rares. This way I might get some Hidurares, even, although in single player 1.04 there's a new durability bug with those. Still, I'd rather get a great hidurare than get Broc over and over, you know?

Steady through the Dry Hills, then down into the Halls of Dead. Nothing down there resists fire, so it was one shot for the skels, two for mummies, three for greater mummies. Not bad. More gambles, and I hit on both Lennymo (stashed, kept for Hidurare reasons stated above) and this awesome boots:

That's pretty darn good for clvl 16 gamble. I'll continue looking for better, but honestly I could live with that for a long long time. Got my cube and turned all my gem chips and stashed blue potions into full rejuvs. That left me with a nearly empty inventory! I soon filled it up with more potions, though. :)

On to the Oasis, and nothing special happening there. One shot kill for everything: bugs, birds, bats. The maggot mothers took two shots, and of course Beetleburst and crew took a few extra shots. Maggot lair was about the same story. Ember killed Coldworm from the safety of the hallway. Then right AFTER that, she hit on Death's Hand. Great, right AFTER all the poison is over! Heh.

Well, maybe not. Still got the city to do, and for that I switched to Death's Hand. Let those potion throwers be confounded by my indifference! Ha! :)

On the other hand, this little puppy was not impressed by my now beefy poison resistance:

That's everyone's favorite opponent, right? Leapers on steroids aura! :)

Down in the Ancient Tunnels, found my first LEB of Act Two (I'd had soooo many in Act One).

Back in town, I switched belts to a light belt with +17 life. I leveled up to clvl 19 and pondered whether to take my Energy to 80 or leave it at 75. Well even with Broc I'd been using mana at times, and though Warmth might eventually give me a fully self-replenishing mana pool even in constant-fire situations, that was a way off. I pondered long and hard, then finally decided I'd take the Energy to 80, giving me a native mana total of about 155. Vitality was at 40 I think? Don't remember for sure. Maybe it was higher. In any case, from here on out, all stat points would go to Vit. Also, Firebolt nearly maxed now. One more level to go.

Over on the far side of the Ancient Tunnels I found an Armor shrine. Check it out:

Ember's defense rating was doubled, reducing her be-hit chances from 91% down to a much more manageable 84%. Why, Ember was nearly invincible now! She was ready for some melee! Well, OK, maybe not. :) Hmm... 26 defense? Oh yeah, base DR had gone up from 12 to 13 once I'd switched belts. Well, that made all the difference in the world!

On to the Temple, and ooh what nice luck. All snakes, all the time (except for mummy makers). Seeing as how they died in one shot each, this was quite the slaughter. Here's one noteworthy victory:

As this is Hardcore, yet I'm full-clearing Normal, I exercised veteran care with level two. Hired the best non-jab merc I could find (made sure his name was NOT Jemali), went immediately east (toward the top of screen) upon entering, fried snakes up there until Fangy got curious, left the merc to take the bullet and moved on around down to the stairs, clearing out some guardians that were in the way, then up onto the platform.

Masterfully executed even if I do say so myself. :) Minimized the risks at every turn and never had to drink a potion. Of course, the merc died, so it could have been done better, but it could NOT have been done safer. Oh, and look, Ember can now throw away this pathetic little ammy she's been wearing and use the Viper ammy.

Palace went routinely. Everything in there is slow, and slow things aren't much threat. Still, the archers in large numbers can bite a shieldless char pretty hard, so I moved with some caution. To my surprise, the skel archers did not always die in one shot. Hmm. Really REALLY starting to expect more of that soon. Ember's power is almost topped out now, and foes are going to start taking more and more and more shots to kill.

Fire Eye was uncooperative, but Ember handled him anyway.

In the Arcane, here comes some real fight now. Goats have fire resistance and take three shots to kill, sometimes four. Ghouls don't resist but have strong health: two or three shots. Specters only two shots each, but for the first time in the game, every monster Ember faced in a particular area required more than one shot to kill. Not only that, but goats actually do enough damage to overcome Ember's high vitality to a point of being able to stun her. First nonchamp, nonboss monsters able to do that!

I made every possible use of available terrain to minimize the need for retreating in the face of mob anger. The twisty quadrant proved easiest for this, and the teleporter area nearly as easy. The summoner was to the North for a change, in the teleporter quadrant, and Ember QUITE NEARLY died to one of his firewalls, with no -md and only 6% fire resistance. I was shooting at him from long range and NOT expecting a firewall to erupt beneath my feet. I thought I was out of his range. Luckily I reacted instantly, or else that would have been the end of Ember. As it was, drinking a red AND a minor purple in one keypress (panicked and hit two keys at once, heh, but that worked out ok) and moving almost immediately, and Ember was still below half health. Yikes. Been a while since I've fought him with no -md. Almost forgot that he can be a legit threat, seeing how weak and fragile he is once you do some damage.

Well, caution and then appropriate boldness soon terminated him (Ha! Two shots? Even a normal goat can do better than that!) Waypoint secured in Canyon, time to finish cleaning up the Sanctuary. The crazy-stairs area was more problematic, in terms of the goats. Some made their way to Ember and forced her into hit and run, even a bit of Tempting Fate (firing until they close to melee range, then running AS they swing -- don't try this with HeyFatso!) Then on to the final quadrant, the straightaway area. Ugh. No getting around the fighting here. Ugly, full blown hit and run, over and over. Lots of mousework, increased risks, increased adrenalin. On the up side, the lightning spires here went down without a fuss. The very last fight I had in the Arcane was the only boss pack:

In town, I hit the jackpot on belts. Not a rare, no, but just as good: coral of tiger, +29 Lit Resist, +24 Life. That's as good as I was going to get from Act 2, and something I'd enjoy against Mephy and Diablo later on, assuming an even better one didn't turn up by then. Light Belt, I should point out. Two rows, but that is just what Ember needs. Elzix sold it to me. Not that Fara doesn't sell a few two-row belts, but Elzix sells more and I had been checking with him faithfully. There were times when Fara's whole inventory showed red for weakling little Ember, I should point out. Ten strength is no big deal in Act One, but Elzix is the last pit stop. Ember won't be able to buy a single thing in Acts 3 or 4, except for gambles.

I also bought two staffs, both put into stash, both socketed Battle Staves. One had +3 Firebolt (and +2 Frozen Armor, but Ember will just ignore that), and the other had +3 Blaze (and +2 SF, but again, that's not a legal skill for Ember -- even the Blaze is just for Duriel in NIGHTMARE ONLY, assuming I live that long). I also continued to check for better versions of those. I'd love to get a +3 firebolt staff with fastest cast and a nice high resistance (fire or cold preferably). Why not +mana? Well, more mana's of NO USE to Ember, you know. She's topped out now. So resistance would be better, or ultimately perhaps the Angel prefix, with one extra free level of skills, adding to her Firebolt a bit and later on to Mastery. But that's a LONG way off, I think, and not all that likely. Fastest Cast would be more valuable if I had to choose.

The Canyon was wall to wall to wall cats. GROWL! FISK-FISSSK! :)

Once again, however, some cats took two shots, just barely. And Ember's now clvl 20, with slvl 20+1 Firebolt, all topped out. Cats are darn speedy, too, at least the melee ones. Their attack is not the quickest, or they might even be deadly, but they sure can sting when lagging. Luckily, no lag here in single player, so while they forced some mousework, the overall risks were low to Ember, at least here in Normal.

Into the false tombs (full clear, remember) and Ember is immediately greeted by some "real combat" (R).

I managed to finish this fight in this one room. That's important, because the alternatives are either retreat (and restart the game to get another shot at it) or run PAST the fight, deeper into the tomb and open up what amounts to a two front war. And, um, two front wars are not good. (Ask Germany!)

In the next room, a champ pack (and the attendent HORDES of burning dead, ick). What a start to my tomb adventures! Sheesh.

On to the next tomb, and it was a little easier. I'm working backward from right to left (true tomb is the Circle, on the far left, tomb #1. So I started with #7. Then on to #5, the double arrow symbol, and my this is a big big tomb. Must be Kaa's tomb, I think, and sure enough it just keeps going and going and going. The boss guarding the golden chest gave me some fight:

Of course, he had help from about two dozen friends. Heh. But in reality I lucked out here. No Unravellers, no burning dead. They were enough of a PITA in smaller tombs. I was grateful to be shooting Gorebellys and Preserved Dead and Apparitions in here.

Hit clvl 22 and noted that my firebolt was maxed out and Warmth was about to go to level 3.

As chance would have it, I did not find Kaa's chamber until I'd cleared every other single room and hallway in the tomb. Rembering the troubles Radament gave me, I was VERY careful to lure out all the resurrectable undead far far FAR away before killing them. Then it was Kaa's turn, and overall the fight was routine.

I chose this as a session break point, came back the next day and had to redo part of the Canyon, of course. This time melee cats and Crushers. Well, those speedy cats forced me to move around a little, waking up yet more cats and more Crushers until I had a genuine furball going around the waypoint.

Finally got that under control. If I have that situation develop in Nightmare, though, that could be a real crisis. Those cats are SO quick, it's even possible to get swarmed and slain so quickly you can't even quit and save in time. I'll have to be careful there.

Into Tomb 4, and dangit there's an Unraveler champ pack (and the accompany horde of red skels) jampacked into a tiny front room. I've got a split second to make my choice, and I choose to run past them. This is, after all, still only Normal Act Two.

Well there were Gorebellys, lots of mummies (lots and lots) and quite a mob of burning dead, too. I manage to round-robin it in that second room, staying ahead of the horde while slowly whittling away. I probably ran two dozen laps of that room in the process. Felt like a Nascar qualifier! Even that fight in Tomb 7, in the front room, only took about a dozen laps.

Rest of that tomb was tame. Found a LEB in Tomb #3 though:

Tomb #2 had Unravellers and took some time to clear out. Some of them were stubborn. Then on to the true tomb, and once again fortune smiled on Ember: no Unravellers (well, one boss pack of them, but otherwise none). Instead: Gorebellys, Ghouls, lesser mummies. Clearing them all out was work, but not tedium, and fairly low risk.

I gambled a ring before taking on Duriel, got Cathan's Seal, with -2 damage. I put that on instead of the glowing ring (didn't need Light here) so I now had -3 damage, total. Had to give up the Viper ammy to open the chamber, though. Only thing I had left was a +3 Life ammy I'd found to replace the +2 from Act One. Heh. Oh, and I switched gloves, too. Moved to some heavy gloves with +19 life. Sold the Death's Hand, but kept the Broc for Hidurare purposes.

Anyway, my plan was to go toe to toe. That worked for most of my other chars in Normal. Let a merc take the initial bullet (that first charge) then close to melee range and stand there and pelt him with firebolts until he dropped. No reason why that shouldn't get it done, right? Right??

Well so much for that plan. Duriel took out the merc, and Ember closed in as planned. Only... no blocking, and he was getting in some stun hits, knocking Ember back, charging her and smacking her hard. Hmm. I had a column of reds (Only two rows on belt, though, so that's two reds. Heh), a column of lesser purple, and two columns of full purple. Well the reds are now gone, so are the lesser purples and one of the four full rejuvs. Duriel has about 90% of his health left. Hmm.

Um... this plan is NOT WORKING.

OK, what are my options here?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "OPTIONS" YOU FOOL! RUNNNNNNNNNN!!! This is HARDCORE!

Oh boy. Well, OK, so I run. I run and shoot. Hit and run. Try not to think about how I'd be dead as a doornail now if this were Realms. It's not: stay focused. Duriel's got the lead, but the game isn't over. Ember fires in that moment it takes him to recover from each charge. I manage to avoid most of his attacks, and now running in roughly the egg shape I'd use with Blaze if I had that skill. (And NO, I am not running back to town for the Blaze staff and breaking my variant rules here, even if it kills me!)

Duriel is still getting some hits in, though. No fast cast items, boots only Faster Run, not Fastest, and no blocking. I open up inventory and start drinking reds and lesser purples from there. Had to drink another full rejuv off belt, though, when he got in a really mean charge. On the up side, his health is actually going down, and this new "plan" (such as it is) is actually working. Round and round, firing ONE shot at a time behind me in what I hope are safer moments. Drank every damn minor purple I had and all but one red. Was about to be down to those full rejuvs, and had only two left on belt and a few in inventory. But finally:

Bastard dropped a rare ring. It's crap, actually, but better than the crap Ember was wearing. Have I mentioned lately just how much two-row belts actually suck?

Had a little cleanup left to do in the rest of the true tomb. Anticlimactic, I know, but full clear to me means FULL clear. OK, that's done. Time to move on.

Two bosses down, two to go. Ember will see you in Act Three.

- Sirian

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