Mission: Same as Nightmare,full clear,bow only except for Duriel,no multishot,no strafe,no Valkeryie.

New Items:

Belt-------LR 22%,+9 mana,+58 life,+12 strength
Gauntlets--LR 5%,FR 12 %,+1 life,+16dex,SIAS

Amulets:

FR 21%,-1 MDR
FR 19%,LR 19%,CR 15%,PR 19% +6 mana
FR 17%,LR 24%,CR 22%,PR 15%
LR 41%,+24 mana
LR 5%,4% life steal

Rings:

2-7 poison damage over 3 seconds
CR 43%,5% life steal
6% mana steal
Rare-CR 7%,+18 mana, +32 life,+1 max damage,from Lord De Seis

Hiawatha entered the Blood Moor with trepidation and excitement.Her abilities would be tested to the extreme and she was looking forward to the challenge.

She used Tarnhelm for the first time in the above ground areas hoping the +75% magic find would make a difference and it was noticeable.A lot more exceptional items,the cash rolling in to feed her gambling habit.

The bug,where chilled monsters are speeded up when unfrozen was more dangerous in Hell difficulty.Wailing beasts and Zombies being very susceptible while other monsters are not effected at all.

Blood Raven presented no problem and after the Crypt and Masoleum were cleared,Hiawatha did the cave levels.In Nightmare Hiawatha usually took a mercenary with her when entering cave levels,but they are so weak in Hell, that the short distraction they produce does not outweigh the negatives,activating more monsters,firing into lightning enchanted bosses,getting Hiawatha cursed.

The Bosses in Hell are nasty,Hiawatha running into no less than 7 Lightning enchanted bosses before she reached the Stony field waypoint.

Cave level one had a particularly nasty skeleton boss who was Lightning enchanted,Holy shock aura, Cold enchanted.The holy shock damage was being done well before he was on the screen, and taking good chunks out of Hiawatha's life.Meeting this guy in cave level 2 could easily have been lethal.

Coldcrow was Multiple shot,Stone Skin,Cold Enchanted.

Caption-"Nice meeting you all,but I really have to run".

Cave level 2 made for a good fight and Hiawatha was loving it.This is the kind of action she had been looking forward too.Everything dangerous yet doable if handled properly,without cheesy stair traps in a sardine can.If only more areas had these kinds of elements.

Hiawatha cubed a Fletchers amulet,+1 to amazon skills.A nice item,but losing mana and resists to wear it makes for a tough trade off.

All the fights are much more dangerous now and Hiawatha is drinking potions regularly.Rogue Lancers,skeleton archers and quill rats are all hitting hard.

The underground passages were cleared and the Cain quest reward ring was not very good. PR 34%,+110 AR,+12 mana,+12% to magic find.

The pit and hole levels were very dangerous as usual.Hole level 2 had a Rogue archer Boss with multiple shot,blessed aim aura and extra fast.

The Dark tower went well until about the 3rd level,where another Rogue archer Boss was waiting.Hiawatha was lucky to activate some of her minions first and deal with them,before tackling the extra fast,mana burn Boss,and her 3 remaining minions.One hit would take all her mana,and a good chunk of life,and the boss was as fast as Hiawatha.

On to the barracks.

Here is a shot of Pulse Ripper and his gang coming to take my head off.He was Lightning Enchanted,Fire Enchanted,Aura Enchanted.I just like this pic.

Hiawatha had a very close call with the Smith.

He was cursed and had a holy shock aura.As soon as hiawatha was hit with the holy shock she was cursed,so she was cursed the whole time she was battling him.She just ran and fired ice arrows taking him down to almost no health,but she was drinking potions and was almost out.She reached her portal with the Smith in hot pursuit and she thought one more arrow would kill him.She fired,and you guessed it,he did not go down.Instead he whacked her, and just about ended the game.Hiawatha fell into the TP admonishing herself for being so careless.

She came back via the outer cloister and cast a decoy into the area where her TP had been,which was a good thing,as the Smith charged the decoy at lightning speed,having been speeded up by all the damage he took,and starting coming after Hiawatha.Horror of horrors,his aura had changed from Holy shock to Holy Freeze.Holy shit batman.Hiawatha was able to get one arrow away just in time and he dropped.

Hiawatha was still using the Kings double bow she had found at the beginning of act 2,nightmare.She now had 3 imbues and could really use a better bow.She needed more mana leech to support the higher levels of immolation and ice arrow,and monsters were beginning to die slowly.

In the room adjacent to the entrance to jail level one there were 4 Wraith champions,skeleton archers and nightclan.A good fight.

Flamespike was waiting at the Inner Cloister and was mana burn.He hits really hard.Guided arrow all the way.Hiawatha never did get a look at him and that was just fine.

Hiawatha worked her way down toward Andariel and had some pretty good draws.Almost no fetishes,and she didn't run into the the usual spider boss pack or the Vampire boss pack on level 3.In fact,there were only 3 ghouls to be found anywhere.

Hiawatha found a superior large siege bow,and decided to imbue it.
22-74 damage
5% Life steal
2-7 poison damage
8% LR
+98 Ar
+1 to minimum damge

The poison damage takes away the stun affect,but thats not a concern for Hiawatha.

Very nice.

She needed an extra 5 strength to use it,so she shuffled some jewellery,put on her rare gauntlets with SIAS,and tried it out.

Made a very noticeable difference.The bow is a little slower,but with SIAS,not too bad.Next level up goes to strength.

Hiawatha put on her Death's Hand and her poison resist jewellery.With maxed PR,Andariel couldn't really hurt her.Drinking the occasional antidote potion was all that was needed.

ACT 2

The Radamant quest was no problem.

Poison damage hurts a lot.Hiawatha's poison resist is -50,and she has no poison reduction items in her normal setup, unless she wears Deaths Hand.Getting poisoned is not good,as her health falls very quickly and for a long time.Looks like she will have to wear Deaths Hand in the tomb areas,thus losing her SIAS.

Hiawatha was ambushed by 2 Vulture Boss packs as she entered the desert.One was Holy shock,cursed,the other extra strong,extra fast.

This was a very tricky situation.Running around cursed most of the time,trying to avoid getting locked up by 10 minions and a few spear cats thrown into the mix.She managed to get a TP set up,and after a number of trips to town,whittled down the flock.One of the boss's dropped a Gothic bow of thunder.

Gambled a cap--damage -1,LR 44%,FR 19%,Thorns 4

The stony tomb was a very active at the entrance with a boss group,but after that everything went well.

Valley of the Snakes went very smoothly,level 2 of the claw viper temple wasn't too populated,5 or 6 embalmed,10 or so skeletons,one greater mummy,and of course Fangskin.

Hiawatha tries to take out the greater mummies on her way to the pedastal as they can be a real PITA if skeletons or corpses follow you up the stairs.She was able to get to the pedastal with only a couple of skeletons pursuing,and after that,it was target practice.

The palace was not a problem,and then came the Arcane Sanctuary.

Hiawatha decided to go east first and that was the easiest layout with lots of stairs going to higher levels.She was running into a lot of ghouls and Goatmen and cleaning them up without a problem,and then it happened.

A boss pack of Wraiths,specters,whatever,came at her quickly.She ran down a set of stairs and turned to fire.She heard that freezing pop,and turned blue.Holy freeze aura.This was bad.Hiawatha started running but they were almost on her.She managed to get up a decoy and got some distance,not too far from her TP.The Boss group was on the decoy so she stopped and decided to fire a couple of immolation arrows at them,to soften them up,and then hit the TP.The decoy lasted only a couple of seconds and the group came after Hiawatha at a very fast speed,catching her before she could get to the TP.She was getting hit hard and started drinking potions.Hiawatha was in walk mode and had been using the control key to run,but when I started drinking potions,my finger came off the control key and I was having problems trying to run,and drink at the same time.Holy freeze had me crawling and I was getting locked up with all the hits.I drank all my potions,and sat there stunned,never even thinking of hitting the escape key.It just didn't occur to me, as I had never used escape before,and in the heat of the moment,my mind went to mush.Needless to say,Hiawatha ended up flat on her back,looking up at the stars.Hiawatha died at the age of 44.RIP.

If I had gone right to my TP,after getting the decoy up,I probably would have been ok.The aura may have changed,or I could have cleared some room in one of the other directions and then whittled down the group.

Everything was full cleared (except the maggot lair had not been done yet) right up to the Arcane Sanctuary with no restarts or parking.

Oh well.I was surprised at how far I got,and had a great time doing it.Can't ask for much more than that.

What to try next?

- Maaloch

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