Part One: An Empty Pocket

Ember embarked upon Nightmare Difficulty at clvl 27 with the following skills, stats and equipment:

Firebolt @ max (+3 from staff)
Warmth @ 10

Str 10, Dex 25, Vit 100, Nrg 80

Rare Heavy Gloves - +12 Fire and Lit Resist, Half Freeze, -25% Poison Dur, +1 Life - gambled Act 3
Coral Light Belt of Tiger: +29 Lightning Resist, +24 Life - bought from Elzix
Boots: Faster Run, Fastest Recovery, +14 Lit Resist, +11 Life, +7 Stamina - gambled Act 2
Gemmed Battle Staff: +3 Firebolt, +2 Frozen Armor (unused), w/ flawless ruby and diamond, normal amethyst
Ring: -2 Damage, +35 Cold Resist - flesh spawner boss, Outer Steppes
Ring: +29 Poison Resist, -1 damage, +1 Light, Half Freeze, +2 mana, +79 AR - Duriel
Ruby Amulet: +45 Fire Resist, +12 Dex - beetle boss in the Disused Fane
Amber Quilted Armor of Simplicity: +33 Lightning Resist, -40% Requirements - gambled Act 4
Cap of the Mammoth: +36 Life - gambled Act 4

In stash: Greyform, Lennymo, Broc, Hotspur, Snakecord, and a gemmed battle staff with +3 Blaze (for use on Duriel ONLY, if Ember survives through Act Two). Also some spare jewelry starting to accumulate: ammy with -1 md, ammy +29 Cold Res +13 Dex, ammy +18 Life, ring +43 Fire Resistance, ring +29 Poison Resist and Regenerate Life +3. Also more than twenty full rejuvs, most of them being carried in main inventory.

Ember's first task in nightmare was to sell her unsuccessful imbue, don her magical cap, and pull that gemmed battle staff of firebolt out of storage from her Horadric Cube.

Ember consults Akara for fashion advice:

"Yes, Ember, dear. This new look fits you marvelously. Now about the Den of Evil..."

Ember headed on out to the Moor. Quill rats took from one to three shots? Lots of variation in their hit points, with the slvl 23 firebolts a steady 36-39 fire damage. Zombies took at least four shots each, but were worth a decent 700 or so experience. They were no threat, being slower than Gheed with a rebate payment.

The Den was also filled with slow, lumbering opponents. Beasts took as many as eight shots! Fallen only took two, but shamen required six to eight, with their fire resistance, and that resistance would grow stronger on the more advanced models. As such, the Den was not quite a complete cakewalk. There were no real threats, but some effort was expended. Act Four had more than prepared me; this was a walk in the park by comparison to that. Still, it left me testing, probing, observing, trying to feel out Ember's limitations.

I went from the Den straight to the Burial Grounds and straight to engage the Red Ho. Skeletons took four shots to kill, hungry dead up to six. This meant a lot of distractions and slow progress as Ember was barely able to wipe out zombies faster than Raven could conjure them up. Raven herself was not as strong as I expected, though. Archer bosses are the bane of sorcies, more so for staff users (no blocking). Yet Raven took damage fairly quickly and the battle lasted only a couple of minutes, and that only because of her summon ability.

I then decided to test the waters in the Crypt. There would be no archers, which are the main danger (at least to Ember) of these underground areas in Act One. I just wanted to see how Ember would do, and I'd pull her out if she struggled. So down I went and the FIRST encounter is a skel boss pack led by...

Teleporting FEB! Yes, THERE is a winning combination! Not.

The blue one is Bonebreaker, who is magic resistant. So there are two bosses after me already, both of them taking only 9-10 damage per hit. Fun stuff there. I did not immediately run screaming from the Crypt as you might imagine. NOW was the time to see what Ember could and couldn't kill, while the foes were still pathetically slow, not wait until they dart around like hummers.

Minions (double life) took the expected seven or eight shots and I whittled them down slowly. I then pressed ahead into uncharted area and cleaned out the rest of the crypt with care. I isolated the FEB and tried to take him down, but as expected his heal rate was better than my damage rate. FEB could be done, teleporter could be done. Teleporting FEB was a PITA and finally I parked him, slowly killed Bonebreaker, got the pathetic treasure and skipped the Mausoleum entirely.

So now I knew. Underground was relatively tough for Ember and I'd have to be careful with boss or champ packs. I'd have to be VERY careful in the Barracks and the Jail, and I would not be advancing to the Cats until I had some Fire Mastery to improve my damage output. I'm sure I could do it without the mastery, but it would definitely reduce my risks to have some by then.

Which brings me to my plan here for Ember. Normally I would just press on through, but not only was this Hardcore, but also Ember's offensive capability was topped out except for Mastery. So I needed to level up at some point, and doing so in Act Four Normal was definitely OUT. I've never actually dallied around to level up in Act One before, so I would have to figure out which areas gave me the best bang for the effort.

At clvl 27, I could earn full experience off of everything up to the Marsh, and at 28 I could extend that to the Outer Cloister. It would take clvl 30 to do that for the jail, but I doubted I could wait that long. It would take clvl 32 to get full experience off everything in Act One. So I would make my way to the Marsh, avoiding any unnessary underground sections -- definitely not going into the Caves to look for Coldcrow! I'd then repeat the Moor to Marsh run until I leveled up to 29, at which point I would do the Malus Quest and probably the jail all the way to the inner cloister. I would not press ahead to finish Act One until Ember reached clvl 32, with three levels of Mastery adding 43 percent to her damage.

I knew that would mean a lot of repetitions somewhere in Act One. The Zombies, for all their harmlessness, actually give good experience, but the quill rats do not and gains were slow, even if safe, in the Moor. The Cold Plains offered better, but as I realized while clearing it after Raven was dead, it is chock full end to end with fallen clans: a shaman and a few warriors. The effort needed to actually kill one of these clans was on the high end, with either lots of luring away of warriors or lots of heavy mousework running willy nilly around and around firing off shots here and there as a warrior mob chases. Either way, the time and effort spent were disproportionate to the rewards. I did take time to slay Bishibosh, because I could.

Rakanishu was just inside the Stony Field and I fell back to the Plains and killed him there. Not really all that many shots, but he's extra fast and his 8x normal Carver life definitely carried him out of the "complete pushover" category he'd occupied in Normal. The Field had a lot of foul crows, and as you may know, the ones produced from nests are worth nothing. Even the other ones aren't worth much. The skeletons and the rogue archers scored decently, but Ember did not gain much here overall.

In town was another story. I busily checked the shops for equipment upgrades. A nice amber sash of colossus would have been well appreciated! No such luck, but I did find a Tangerine Cap of Colossus, with +14 Lit Resist and +42 life. That was a slight upgrade and Ember bought it.

It was time to take the risk and venture underground. No other way to advance to the Dark Wood. Well, of course Murphy has to have his say, you know. So I took the precaution of hiring a mercenary.

OUCH! $#@!%^ Archer Champs! Three of them. RIGHT inside the entrance, waiting to Ambush little Ember. You can see the crumpled rogue in the shadows at top of screen, dead, dropped like a stone right where she had entered. She did her job WELL, though. She took the bullet for Ember, or rather the arrow. In the time it took them to kill the poor merc, Ember wore down one of the three champs to a fraction of its life and managed to kill it off with some happy feet (dodging). Two were still way too strong to stand and fire nonstop unless one was prepared to drink a beltful of potions in quick succession. I wasn't, so I tried to time my own shots for just after they had fired. Worked pretty well but I winced every time they smacked the daylights out of Ember with a hit. And yes, they always hit! Good grief.

Fortunately, there was no mob of meleers snapping at Ember's heels or I might have bailed and rerolled the map! This proves everything I've been saying all along about archers. Hotfoot learned all those lessons the hard way, and she had considerably more defense than Ember.

I moved cautiously through the UGP but had no further serious troubles. Some lively fights, yes. Deadly situations, no. Spitters would go into Shoot Mode after Ember hit them once, and rogues would keel over with four hits. I stayed away from the fallen outposts when possible and left the UGP as soon as I found the exit.

Emerging in the Dark Wood, the cave entrance was NOT on the edge of the zone, embedded in a cliff face. Rather, it was right out in the middle of the woods, with carver camps nearby on two sides and a rogue lancer boss pack on guard right behind the exit. Fun stuff. I ran Ember around in as tight a loop as I could manage, so as not to wake up the entire neighborhood at once, and just worked and worked at the mob until they were all dead. Several potions were used.

Back in town, Gheed offered me a low-end Amber Light Belt of Tiger, +32 Lit Resist +28 Life. That was slightly better than the one I got from Elzix in normal and I made the upgrade. I also gambled a quilted armor of colossus +58 life but couldn't wear it yet (still only 10 strength). Ember still had a way to go to level up, too, although she was making progress.

I worked around in the Wood, clearing out the western side (where I'd emerged), moving southward, and I found the waypoint in the corner. Worked back to the north and then east along the northern stretch and I came to the part with the short stone walls and the mass of carvers but only one shaman. Cleared that out and just beyond that, around to the southeast, here comes Treefist and crew. Mana Burn! Well that still gives him twenty percent resistance, but better than Fire Enchanted or Magic Resistant so I counted my blessings as I ran around and wore him down.

It was time to free Cain!

I hired a merc. All I really had to do was run to the center of town, lower the cage, and get out. I thought I might just end up doing that, too, but I'd wait to see what was there before making a final decision. If I could clear out the town, I'd do it.

Arrive in Tristram, head north as I usually do. Oops, there is Night Clan LEB parked in that back niche that is often completely empty. Well, so much for that plan. Ember runs the other way, leaving the merc to buy a precious few moments. Skeleton mob to the south and now I'm in a squeeze play. Ember runs into the center of town, takes just a moment to hit Cain's cage in passing. Oops, missed. Great. Well can't stop now, so I run west, past the old inn and Gillian's house, out toward the old church. I've lost some of the mob chasing me, and the northwest corner is empty, thank goodness. Some goats and skeletons, including three Returned Champs, follow me up there. The goats I kill first, then the skel minions, finally the champs. Nothing else comes up there and I realize that the situation has reached some temporary stability.

I work around to Wirt's body and down through that corner, then back north along the creek and venture into the center of town again. This time Ember frees Cain but is immediately forced to retreat as here comes an Extra Fast Gris and an FE-CE skeleton boss and crew. I kill a few minions then run to the southwest corner and escape via portal.

In town, Cain describes his take on the situation at great length. Ember's hair grew two inches before he was finally done, I think. :)

I only managed to get away by telling him I had to go back to clean up the rest of Tristram! Strangely enough, Ember was actually happy to do just that, too. Some people can talk your ears off so well, they can make you wish you were ANYwhere else! :)

I killed the skel boss first (you see his explosion) and then yes, I took the time to slay Griswold. As a prize for my effort, he dropped an amulet of defiance -- something actually useful! I saved it for later situational use with Andariel and acts two and three. Cleared Tristram end to end, and I now felt as if I had a solid grasp on Ember's capabilities and limitations.

I finished up the last bits of the Dark Wood, then ventured on into the Marsh. When I came upon the Forgotten Tower, I consulted with Warriv as to what I should do.

Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner! Great advice, Warriv! Thank you. Yes sir, I'll stay out of there. I promise.

Return to the Marsh and just a minute or so later... my game crashed. The quilted armor of colossus was on the ground at the time, so it was lost, along with most of Ember's red and minor purple potions.

Ember will see you back at the Rogue Encampment.

- Sirian

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