Well, I'm getting quite fond of these hc-variants. I don't really know what it is, might be that I'm writing about it and therefore thinking about the character more. Maybe it's the extreme difficulty. Either way I like it!
I'm gonna play a sorc using Icebolt as only weapon. I thought about whether I were gonna use Warmth or not, after a while I decided to use it. After level 21 I won't have any Attack Skill to add to, might as well use Warmth then. But those are the only two skills - Icebolt and Warmth. Oh and some CM if I make it that far. Playing without Warmth wouldn't really make the game "harder", just more of a pain. Playing without CM on the other hand would probably be impossible later on considering the enemies' life regeneration and the ridiculous low amount of damage I would do to a Boss with 75% cold resistance.
Since I will use Warmth, I won't have much energy, most stat points will go to vitality. Str will probably be left at 45.
This is basically another variant like Sirian's Ember, with four big differences: 1. I will do much less damage than Ember did, not only because of lack of FM, but also because Firebolt simply do more damage. 2. I will chill my enemies, making it much safer then it was for Ember. 3. IIRC Ember was very restricted in items she could wear and strength amount. So basically easier, but it might take more time since I do less damage. 4. My CM will make enemies with high cold resistance much less of a threat than an enemy like that would be to Ember (fire resistance for her part of course).
My previous character didn't do full clears. I decided this one will, just because it was so long ago I did it; I can't even remember it. It will also leave me bigger challenges and better equipment and experience.
I expect to reach about full power around level 25. Icebolt should be maxed by this time and Warmth high enough to fulfil my needs. CM will make me somewhat more powerful, but hardly that much I imagine.
So my way to the end of Act 3 should be quite easy (well, Duriel might and probably will prove to be an exception to that). It's after that it will get tougher and tougher.
One of the first challenges you face is the characters name. I decided to make it easy for me and call her Iceboltier. :)
Well, then, let's start playing.
Normal - Act 1
The first thing I did was to follow the path that always leads straight to the next area or cave, I had no thought at all about the full clearing I was gonna do. Though I did recall it at the entrance of DoE and started following the walls instead. As a note I might add that I did use Firebolt from the staff, and I will melee in the first levels, just to speed it all up. It's only cosmetics not meleeing or using another skill in the beginning and I didn't care much for it. But like I said, I will only melee the first levels until my mana is a little more stable. Icebolt has a fixed cost at 3 mana, the damage is increased by 1 per level (I think) and the chill time increases by 1.4 seconds for each level. When this skill is maxed the cold duration will be far more than sufficient, even in hell difficulty! This skill has in fact the longest chill duration of all skills.
DoE went by nicely, I used a small mana potion to be able to kill that boss there (whatever his name is), but that's all. I was almost at level 4 after clearing Blood Moor and DoE. My skill point from DoE I used as my first point in Warmth. I did pick up some magic items I use, but none worth mention.
My stats distribution is: 2 str, 1 vit and 2 energy. As soon as I reach 45 str and a little more energy I will only add to vitality. I'm thinking this character will have a lot of life later in her carrier.
So far I'm basically doing one-shot-kills, every now and then it takes two though.
I've also realized that my mana-need won't really be any bigger from this point and on, and since I'm gonna put several points into Warmth, energy will be kept low, around 60, maybe 70.
Cold Plains and the Cave level 1 was basic fighting. Whenever my mana runs out I usually cast one bolt to chill, melee the rest. I regenerate enough mana at the moment to do this relatively nice. Level 2 was a little tougher, but no real dangerous situations. One of the bosses was a Multishot archer who dropped a magic staff with 8% fire resist and 1+ Icebolt. It's definitely better than the normal sword I used before. Later on when I have a little more gold I'll try to find some staff with +Icebolt and Warmth. Even later on I'll probably switch to a wand with fastest cast rate and some resistances, life or mana or whatever I can find to wear with whatever shield I'm able to dig up.
Blood Raven can be very tough with some characters; a sorceress isn't one of those though. I would claim she is the character who can deal with Blood Raven at normal difficulty the best/easiest way. Of course I was level 6 when killing her, a couple of levels higher than I usually is, but I think my previous statement still stands. Though come to think of it a Sacrifice using Pally might have better way to kill her, but not without much more danger.
She is often very irritating, running around all the time, rarely staying still for more than a moment, so you miss many of your shots. I was lucky though; I managed to get her standing still trying to shoot me. So while she does her attack animation I have time to fire about 2 bolts at her (since she is chilled from my bolts, otherwise I wouldn't had time to fire that many). I took about 50% of her life in this way, then she started running around again and I had to chase her down. Luckily I had killed all the zombies and skeletons before attacking her, so I had free room in the chase.
Let's see how long I can keep the hireling I got from her alive, shall we?
The Crypt and Mausoleum was cleared without any special events. I didn't get one good thing from the yellow chests down there, no armor or anything. I did get a lot of weapons, some pretty nice ones, but of course they aren't much use to me...
I levelled up to level 7 at Stony Field and decided to put my skill point into Warmth. I figure it's worth more to be able to fight a little longer without running dry on mana then to have 1 more in damage. I may also put a third point into it, but probably not. It depends on how much difference that second point does.
Rakanishu was dealt with without trouble, he dropped me an ammy with 8% lightning resist and 1+ lightning radius. I replaced my older one (damage reduced by 1) with this.
The Underground Passage is always easy in normal difficulty, it was no exception this time. Level 2 weren't hard either.
But both levels will be hard in nightmare and hell. In level 1 the archers can be extremely dangerous, imagine an Cursed, Extra Strong and Multishot archer boss... Level 2 can be hard to get a foot into; I may not be able to clear the first area, getting a foothold in later difficulties. Only time will tell...
Level 8 was reached right before Dark Wood. I felt I didn't really need higher mana regeneration, so my skill point went into Icebolt. And so will my other points in the near future.
In Dark Wood I found the Tree almost immediately. This is where my hireling died with my last hc-character. This time I managed to kill the Guardian of the Tree (as I like to call him since I can never remember his real name :)) before he had the time to kill her, but my hireling's life was red after the fight.
After clearing maybe 30% of Dark Wood I found the wp. I head for Tristram instead of finish clearing Dark Wood. That way Cain can help me identifying items as soon as possible.
In the beginning of Tristram I got my first unique item - Pluckeye, unfortunately it's a rather useless short bow. It has the following stats: 4-10 damage, fast attack speed, 3% mana steal, +10 life, +28 AR and +2 lightning radius. I guess it would have been nice if I was an amazon, but now it's just some more money.
So I was in the beginning of Tristram, the game is paused with the escape key. Then when I move to unpause the game I by mistake hit "Save and Exit" with the mouse button! This doesn't happen very often, but it's far from the first time it happens. I sure am glad I have the wp to Dark Wood.
Since it's quite late at night I decide to let this be the end of my first session with Iceboltier. She is a powerful character at the moment; of course things will be different in a couple of Acts... And doing full clears is fun, it was so long ago I saw places like the Crypt and the Underground Passage level 2, but it's nice doing it again. I'm sure I would get tired of it eventually, just like I apparently got many months ago when I stopped doing full clears, but for now it's fun.
I don't really know why this kind of things happens. The only theory I have is that I go for the escape button to unpause the game at the same time I press the mouse button to move my character. Of course what is meant to happen is that I should hit the escape button half a second before the mouse button, but I guess it was the other way around this time. Am I alone in doing this? I have never heard anyone else said anything about this. Of course it's hardly something you talk about... :)
Ok, second session. I sell the bow for about 1500 and go for the stones in Stony Field. Killing a couple of enemies on the way there. When I reached the stones I thought it would just be to enter the portal, but the portal wasn't there. So I check my quest log and it tells me to go get the scroll. Now I did get the scroll before, and did open the portal to Tristram. Something is very wrong here. Luckily I have the wp to Dark Wood, so it's not that much trouble to me, but still. I also already know where the tree is since this is single player and the maps are the same as long as you don't switch difficulty or start/join an open game.
This whole Cain-quest is definitely buggy.
Since I didn't clear Dark Wood that much last time I decide to clear it out full this time, even though I have already cleared a part of it. I found Death's Guard from a chest, not that bad. "Cannot be frozen" and high defence is not very useful for me, but it's better than just +2 str which is what I had since earlier.
Tristram was cleared in a couple of minutes, drank two mana potions to kill Griswold. The ring from Akara was gonna be my first, not that bad: 1+ mana after each kill and 1+ mana, could have been worse. The 1+ mana after each kill is in general a worthless affix, but for me it's good. I basically do one-shoot-kills, so this decreases the cost of my Icebolt to 2 instead of 3, so I'm quite happy with it.
Every time I'm in town I check with Akara for a good staff, I haven't found any really good yet. So I decide to buy a semi good staff instead - 1+ Icebolt and +2 Warmth, it costed me 11600 gold. This gives me Warmth at 2+2 and Icebolt at... Wait a minute here. Damn, I just noticed it was 1+ Iceblast. I just wasted 11600 gold on a pretty bad staff, and I sold my previous one. This was a definitive drawback. Anyway, my Icebolt is at level 7. And of course I won't use Iceblast that I got unintentionally from the staff.
I also replaced Death's Guard with a light belt of regeneration - +3 replenish life. As a sorc I don't take much damage, so I figure this belt will keep my life up during and between the battles. Death's Guard is worth 5000 gold, so I stash it to next difficulty before I sell it.
Well, back to clear Dark Wood...
Dark Wood was cleared without further events, same thing with Black Marsh and the Hole. The Hole level 2 is probably the underground place that is the least dangerous. You start out without any enemies against you and you can fight most enemies one on one.
It's a nice challenge keeping you hireling alive. I've gotten her this far one time before, almost a year ago when the game was released (I think it's about 10 months). It was with my first character ever; a paladin. He had prayer quite high, so the hireling always had full life between fights.
On a side note: This paladin made it to Act 4 normal, I never succeeded killing Diablo before I started another character. I didn't use any attack skill since I didn't know back then that you could bind a Combatskill to the left mouse button. I also had all my skill points spread out with prayer being the exception. I think I had prayer around 10 at level 27.
I regret deleting old characters like this; it would have been nice to be able to check them now when I know the game so much better.
Most of the Black Tower was dealt easily with, though I was a little worried for my hireling in level 5. There was a boss and some goats there. She ran right into them, but I managed to kill them before they killed her, she can take quite a beating now since she's levelled up several times. I wonder what things changes for her with the level ups. I know her damage and life increases, but what about defence? AR? Who knows? Not me anyway. :)
After killing the countess I return to town and check Akara for staffs as usual and found a nice one: +3 Icebolt, +1 Warmth and +1 SF. I probably won't find a better one in quite a while, and of course I won't use SF.
I haven't had any mana problems in a while with Warmth at level 4; therefore I've decided to leave energy at 60. The only thing that will increase is my casting speed, and I will have a couple of more points into Warmth by then, and some more mana by the level ups, so I think I'll do OK with that low energy.
My hireling is starting to be more trouble than she's worth; at least when fighting ranged attackers. She takes a lot of damage from them so I have to return to town to heal her up all the time. I'm almost thinking of just letting her die, but just for the hell of it I'm gonna try to take her to Andariel. Now I have no belief she will survive Andariel, she will without doubt die first thing from the poison. But it would be nice getting her there; I doubt many people have done that.
Can't wait til the expansion is released with the much improved hirelings... :)
Well, that goal wasn't reached. My hireling died in the beginning of the Pit level 1 against a LEB. I could probably have made her survive it if I had made a tp in the middle of the fight, but I just didn't think it was worth the effort, even though this means she won't meet Andariel. She just became too much of a pain later on.
Pit level 2 was a little hectic. There was an Extra Fast boss there. These places aren't that dangerous in normal since I do good relative damage. But I really fear this place in nightmare and hell where an enemy probably can take over 20 shoots. But we'll take that as it comes.
The Smith was very easy; he often is with a sorceress, or any other character that fights at a distance I might add (assuming a no-lag situation which almost always is the situation for me anyway). Especially when he's chilled. I guess he might be tough even against ranged attackers if he's extra fast, but this time he wasn't...
Most of the enemies takes two shots in these places, few one and even fever three. Of course bosses, minions and champions take more.
Flamespike was basically taken down from off screen. I wasn't in any danger, but I might be in later difficulties. Luckily I wasn't cursed.
There are few places where you can quit the game and then start it again without having lost anything. The Inner Catacombs are one of those places, so I decided to finish today's session. It's getting quite late.
Well come to think of it I have to kill Flamespike again, but considering how easy it was this time I doubt it's gonna be a trouble the next session.
Third session: I was right; he wasn't any trouble this time either. I levelled up to level 14 after killing him, my energy has reached 60, I won't add any more points to it. My str is currently 36; I will have it to 45, then the rest into vitality. My current stats distribution is gonna be 2 str and 3 vit. I might raise my str later if I find some nice rare item that requires 55 or 60 str or something like that. It's even possible I'll raise it to 75 to wear a tower shied, although it's rather unlikely.
One nice thing about hc-characters that I guess you normally wouldn't think about is that you probably raise your vitality quite high in the beginning which leads to high stamina. It's usually very annoying in the beginning when your stamina normally is very low, especially when doing full clears since you have to run around so much.
I faced an Extra Fast Rat Man down in Catacombs level 1. It was now I realized that fastest run/walk was gonna be extremely important for me later, even though the enemies are chilled. I currently have fast run/walk on a couple of boots; I do however expect to find better at the vendors in Act 2.
The jungles in Act 3 will probably be a pain.
I met a boss pack of Dark Ones. These ones are always a pain meeting since the boss will resurrect his minions, and his minions refuse to be fooled away from their boss. The normal way to do this is to charge in, taking out the boss while accepting all the fire bolts from his minions and himself. But this is something I won't be able to do later in the game; I could probably succeed in it this time though. One other way is to repeat killing his minions all the time. Ice bolt chatters the corpses I think 15% of all the times. This means I will have to kill each enemy many times over, but that might just be my only option, at least later in the game.
To start with I fooled about 10 normal Dark Ones a bit away and killed them, so I wouldn't have to worry about those later in the fight.
The fight was actually much easier than I had expected. The boss managed to be in the flank of his minions (I didn't even see the minions due to a wall) and I could take him down without taking a hit.
It would be really interesting to fight enemies with ten times greater AI than this. Imagine fighting an enemy who will "strafe" (I guess this isn't a correct English term for what I'm meaning; but anyone who has played Doom and/or its precedors will know what I mean, for those who hasn't it means moving sideways) to get away from your magic or arrows... Maybe it would be a little extreme, but it sure would be fun. The AI is supposed the be better in the expansion I think... We'll see about that. Personally I doubt it will be that much difference, but you never know.
Hmm... My lucky day, another pack of Dark Ones. And this time the boss is a CEB. And the boss is in the middle of his minions, so I will probably not have the same possibility as I had the last time.
I started with charging in, trying to chatter some of the minions corpses. I killed about ten of them and I don't think anyone of them chattered. This certainly didn't work well... And killing the boss among his minions aren't something to consider, he's a CEB and can take a lot of shoots.
The final solution was nothing but primitive. I, by chance, got the boss standing in the door, without his minions seeing me then I just exchanged shoots with him. It cost me one healing potion and one mana potion. After that his minions was easily dealt with, they only took two shoots a piece.
In level 3 I was lucky and found Infernal Cranium - 20% of damage goes to mana and 10% resistances to all. This is one of those set items you are really glad to find in the beginning of the game.
Then it was time for Andariel. I don't expect any troubles, she is easy as long as you fight her at a distance and keep away from her poison. And my character is quite strong at this moment.
I was right; she wasn't a problem. It's just a matter of keeping oneself at the right distance from her. The normal gem unfortunately wasn't a diamond, which is the only gem I might have some use for later if I decide to go for a 3D-shield.
Andariel was killed at level 15, with the following stats and items:
38 str, 25 dex, 27 vit and 60 energy. Life: 95, Mana: 113.
Ice bolt @ 13 (+3) - 18-20 damage and 27 seconds chill duration. Warmth @ 2 (+1).
Short staff: +3 Icebolt, +1 Warmth and +1 SF.
Infernal Cranium: 20% of damage goes to mana and 10% all resistances.
Rare quilted armor: Poison length reduced by 25%, mdr 1, 1+ lightning radius, lightning resist 8% and 13 defence.
Leather Gloves of Readiness: sias.
Light Belt of Regeneration: +3 replenish life.
Boots of Pacing: Fast run/walk.
Ocher Amulet of Light: Lightning resist 8% and 1+ lightning radius.
Ring of Regeneration: +3 replenish life.
Ring of the Fox: +7 life.
Normal - Act 2
Well, down in the Sewers we go. Depending on the enemy it takes 2-4 shoots for one kill. The skeletons takes 2, same thing with those cat-like enemies. The zombies and the other tougher enemies takes 3 or 4 shoots.
Radament was hard. It's almost impossible to lure all skeletons and zombies from there for some odd reason. So I had to fight him and all the skeletons and zombies he resurrected all the time. It took quite some shots to kill him. I tell you, I'm not looking forward to meet bosses like these in higher difficulties.
I'm sure this character can finish normal difficulty. Nightmare with some very hard work, Hell... I really don't know. I suspect a normal enemy Act 1 hell can take up to 50-60 shoots. And then the bosses. It could perhaps be done, but it would take hours to kill some of the bosses, imagine Izuael... My average damage will be around 25 through the whole game. I don't have all the numbers in front of me, but I'll do the time calculations it would take to kill these bosses later I think.
Like I've said it was a long time since I did full clears. I had forgot just how small the Stony Tomb is. It's like 3 minutes in each level.
Out in the desert most of my kills are made with 1 or 2 shoots.
In general I can fight fairly good without mana potions. Though against almost every boss I need one or two mana potions.
In Halls of the Dead level 2 I met an interesting bosspack. A cursed Hollow One. Luckily it was in the beginning and there wasn't any skeletons or zombies dead yet for them to resurrect. If there were, I would have been in some trouble. As it was they weren't that dangerous.
And I discovered something. My Icebolts reach longer than their shots do. :) So if I stand at the right distance I will hit them and they won't hit me, seems fair, huh? :)
When I got the Horadric Cube it was time for some cubing. I have 12 chipped gems ready, not enough mana and health potions though. So I'll have to do it over time. Hopefully I will use one of my full rejuvenation potions when it really comes down to it instead of just dying which often is the case in sc-games. :(
Like always I'm getting very tight on the space due to all the rejuvenation potions I carry around. Then after a while I realized. Hey, my previous character had the same problem, how did he solve it? Well, he dropped a lot of potions on the ground, why don't I? Yeah, why don't I? That's a good question. A good question I have no answer to at the moment. I just plainly forgot about it.
But now I dropped about 20 rejuvenation potions on the ground, so everything should work ok, as long as the game doesn't freeze...
Coldworm The Burrower... Magic resistant and Cold Enchanted. I managed to get the normal Sand Maggots before they laid too many eggs. After that it was an easy fight between him and me. I was level 18 when killing Coldworm.
In the Ancient Tunnels I saw a set ring laying on the floor trying to hide. :) I was hoping it was the Angelic Halo that has replenish life 6 IIRC, replenish life is a good affix to a sorc. Unfortunately it was Cathan's Seal. Life steal and damage reduced, not really good to a sorc. But I figure damage reduced by 2 is better than just +7 life which I had on one of my two rings.
Then I when I return from the Ancient Tunnels something seemed wrong. WTF, my rejuvenation potions are gone!!! This is when I remembered that potions, items and so on disappears after a while when just lying on the ground. Man, I had over 30 potions laying there (I had added to the pile since the previous 20 I dropped earlier), luckily no full rejuvenation ones though. But still, that was 30 potions I could have used against Duriel. This leaves me with around 10 normal rejuvenation potions and around 5 full ones. I guess that will be enough for now, but I may need those potions I lost this time for later. Well well, at least I have learnt something. When you drop items, make sure to pick them up regularly and then you may drop them again.
[Editorial Note from Sirian: you don't have to pick up and redrop items to keep them alive. You just have to visit town on a shorter interval. White/gray items will vanish after about fifteen minutes, and perhaps sooner if you have low RAM. I use ground all the time in single player, sometimes blanketing the whole town square with potions and other junk, and I never lose any of it.]
I was a little worried for the Claw Viper Temple level 2. If I get swarmed I don't really know what to do. This is one of those places I really wanted a lot of rejuvenation potions to handle.
I had time to kill one of the worms before I had 4 of them against me; one of those was the boss. So I fled up the stairs. I'm gonna try a hireling; see how much he can do.
I've been looking for a wand or scepter with fastest cast rate since the late part of Act 1. This time when I went to get a hireling and as usual checked for a wand or sceptre I finally found one with fastest cast rate and 19% cold resistance. I bought it, but I won't switch to it just yet. I'll stash it for later use.
Chalan was the name of a jab using hireling with 180 life that I hired.
It worked well. I went down there and started killing all the minions, avoiding the boss; of course the hireling didn't do the same so there was some sparks anyway. :) I returned to town once to heal my hireling, after that I went down and kicked some serious butt. :) I didn't even use a rejuvenation potion, only healing potions, big ones though. My hireling did die when I went down there the second time, but not before I had gotten the time to clear my way longer inside, getting the room to fight properly.
Given the same bad start as this in nightmare I might have been in for some trouble. I think this using of a hireling will be an important part of my strategy later in the game. Some parts are just too dangerous without a tank, I'm mostly thinking of those temples in the later part of Act 3.
The Amulet of the Viper is being used until it's time to cube the Horadric Staff.
In Palace Cellar I did one of those error you often do, no matter how long you've been playing (at least I do this, maybe it's not that common otherwise even though I suspect it is). I pressed a gem shrine before I had the time to notice it was a gem shrine. This is something I do quite often, and it's extremely hard to stop pressing a shrine before checking what it is. This time I only had a chipped diamond in my stash and no gems in my inventory, so it's no catastrophe. I got a flawed amethyst for it. But if I had had a diamond of better quality in my stash I would have been a little madder at myself.
AS was both hard and easy. The hard part is those annoying cold resistant Ghoul Lords. They take 8 or 9 shots to kill, while a normal goat takes 3. And the Specters are even weaker; they go down in 2 hits normally and 3 in rare cases.
My magic damage reduced is 1 and damage reduced 2, fire resist at 10%. I wouldn't think I could stand in a FW without taking any damage with this equipment, yet I can. I'm pretty sure that my damage reduced by 2 doesn't do anything, so it's only the fire resist and mdr that helps me. Yet it might be a good idea trying to find another item with mdr for the future meeting with the Summoner. It depends on how much damage his FW does.
Normally I still have no trouble with mana, although when I meet several Ghoul Lords in a row I often run dry. But my Ice Bolt is soon maxed which mean I will put some more points into Warmth before CM is available.
The Summoner was found in the first quadrant. Even though I hadn't bought/found another item with mdr I decided to engage him. Can't say that I regretted it. For some reason he didn't use much FW, he casted more GS's against me than FW. I drank one healing potion just to be on the sure side, but I could have done it without that potion too. Time to clear the other quadrants...
The teleportation-quadrant can be very dangerous is you're not careful. I went from one teleport to another off-screen. Now, as you may guess, goats swarmed that teleport. I tried clicking the teleport to go back, but I only hit the goats. Though after a while I managed to click the teleport and move away, had to use a rejuvenation potion before that though. This is the kind of thing that will get me killed in later difficulties. If it hadn't happened now, it might well have happened later, so I guess it all worked out for the better. I will NOT do this mistake again.
When I was clearing the third quadrant I got a rare drop, a bone shield. I had a one-handed weapon with fastest cast rate and some other mediocre cold resistance saved up from some time back. I identified it and was happy with the result: 60% blocking, mdr 2, poison resistance 19%, cold resistance 26%, attacker takes damage of 1 and +27 life. Pretty nice, huh :). So I sold my old staff without hesitation and switched to my wand and shield.
This lowered my Ice Bolt to level 19 from 22, but the enemies still dies from three shots. It's definitely worth it.
The Canyon of Magi was pretty much basic work. Shoot and run, shoot and run and so on. Those smaller maggots took 2 shots; they might be a trouble later if there are too many for me to get to the bigger one. I levelled up to level 21 here somewhere, maxing my Icebolt. Now it's time for Warmth before CM gets available.
Ancient Kaa was in the fifth tomb I cleared. He was Magic Resistant, Lightning Enchanted and Extra Strong. Shouldn't be a trouble, though that magic resistant I could have done without... I have around 40% lightning resistance and 230 life, so I can take quite many bolts until it starts getting dangerous.
He went down without trouble, using the same tactic as always: shoot a couple of shots, run away from them, try not to get hit and start over again.
I cubed my last gem to a full rejuvenation potion in the real tomb, number seven. All the time from when I gotten the cube I had collected healing and mana potions to cube. I have around 20 full rejuvenation potions at the moment and a little more smaller ones. Should be enough for Duriel, shouldn't it?
Duriel time... I see two possible ways to kill him in this difficulty. Either try to shoot, run, shoot, run and repeat til dead (his death that is :)). That would be the hard way. The second way would be to stand at melee range where he can't charge you and just shoot while drinking potions. It's only his charge that's rally dangerous. And my casting speed won't be affected from his aura. Hmm... I wonder if Duriel is cold resistant...
I tried the first way, the hit and run tactic first. It worked great. He didn't manage to get one hit!. Only problem was that my stamina ran out so I had to go to town to get full stamina again. While I was in town I bought 1 stamina potion that I probably was gonna have to use.
It took me maybe 3-4 minutes to kill Duriel in normal difficulty, this leads me to believe I will kill him in nightmare and hell difficulty without to much trouble (if I make it that far) unless his life generation turns out to be too much. If something like that happens I will try to deal with it in some way when/if it happens.
The uberdrop was a unique polearm - The Battlebranch. A nice weapon with very fast attack speed and ok damage, but of course it's no use to this character so I sold it and prepared myself for Act 3.
Act two was finished at level 22 with the following stats and items:
45 str, 25 dex, 55 vit and 60 energy. Life: 228, Mana: 158
Ice Bolt @ 20 - 22-24 damage and 32.6 chill duration and Warmth @ 3.
Lapis Yew Wand of the Magus: Fastest cast rate and 19% cold resistance.
Glimmering Chain Gloves of the Wolf: +17 life and +1 light radius.
Coral Scale Mail: 29% lightning resist.
Drake's Heavy Belt of the Wolf: +23 mana and +18 life.
Rare Bone Shield: 60% blocking, mdr 2, poison resistance 19%, cold resistance 26%, attacker takes damage of 1 and +27 life.
Infernal Cranium: 20% of damage goes to mana and 10% to all resistances.
Heavy Boots of Speed: Fastest run/walk.
Ring of Regeneration: +3 replenish life.
Snake's Ring of the Wolf: +5 mana and +15 life.
Ocher Amulet of Light: Lightning resist 8% and 1+ lightning radius.
Normal - Act 3
My first boss out here was one of those flies. Did I get the Statue? No. Many say that you almost always get it from the first enemy, that it's an exception when it's dropped later. Personally I feel that you get it just as often from the second boss than the first one.
I meet my second boss a minute later, didn't get it from him either...
Sshark the Burning on the other hand did dropp the Jade figure, giving me another 20 life.
When I had cleared the Spider Jungle and the Great Marsh I was a little confused. I had found the two caverns in the Spider Jungle just like always, but where were the two yellow chests? Everything was cleared except the Flayer Dungeon. Could it be that there was another part of the Great Marsh, so the Flayer Dungeon was between in someway. Though I doubt this, I have never seen this happen so far. But where were they then?
The ring from Ormus was not that bad, but not that good either: +6 life +23 mana, 7% poison resist, 1+ mana after each kill and +3 minimum damage. I replaced my ring with +3 replenish life with this rare one.
My hireling survived for one minute in the Flayer Jungle. Those Soul Killers took him down in no time at all!
After clearing the Flayer Jungle I still hadn't seen a second part of the Great Marsh, of course I hadn't really expected to.
There's not much to say about the first part of Act 3 except the chests, so let's move on to the second part and the feared temples...
Ok, Lower Kurast and Kurast Bazaar are cleared except two temples waiting for me (and the sewers if you want them to be included). With 300 life and 60% blocking I don't expect any troubles, but I'm gonna get a hireling anyway just in case. And look who's here, it's our friend Jarulf as a fast cast mage with 400 life. :) I hope he won't die straightaway.
The first one was the Ruined Temple. After two seconds I had about 20 enemies at me, but I managed to run through them, getting a foothold on the other side of them. Jarulf wasn't as lucky, he acted foolishly brave. He just wouldn't flee from them like I did, no, he stood there tanking them, maybe saving my life. He was too brave for his own good. :) Now I'm gonna have to hire another one for the next temple.
I never was in any danger, but in later difficulties things might be a little different.
The rest of the temples was about the same, never any real danger, though my hireling died in every temple.
The Council in Travincal wasn't any problem. One of them was cold enchanted though, he took a while to kill, but that was all.
Durance of Hate went by quickly, the only enemy that was annoying was those skeletons that explode upon death. Though those explosions didn't do much damage for some reason, it might just be because I'm used to 8-player-games were they do 8 times more damage or something like that.
Those councils might be a big problem later, now they weren't very dangerous. I might have to park some of the council members later.
I used an old trick against Mephisto. First make sure he stands at the right place on his side of that river. Go to the other side and move slowly against him until you see a little bit of him. When you do see him, start shooting, he won't do anything. The uberdrop was an axe with lousy stats.
Mephisto was killed at level 25 with the following stats and items:
45 str, 25 (+9=34) dex, 75 vit and 60 energy. Life: 292, Mana: 164. All resistances are around 55%.
Ice Bolt @ 20 - 22-24 damage and 32.6 chill duration and Warmth @ 6.
Lapis Yew Wand of the Magus: Fastest cast rate and 19% cold resistance.
Rare Leather Gloves: 8% poison resistance, 9% fire resistance, +9 maximum stamina, +8 life and 27% better chance of getting magic items.
Coral Scale Mail: 29% lightning resist.
Garnet Heavy Belt: 29% fire resistance.
Rare Bone Shield: 60% blocking, mdr 2, poison resistance 19%, cold resistance 26%, attacker takes damage of 1 and +27 life.
Infernal Cranium: 20% of damage goes to mana and 10% all resistances.
Rare Heavy Boots: Fast run/walk, 13% poison resistance, 17% lightning resistance, 9% fire resistance, +22 life and +9 dex.
Rare Ring: +1 mana for each kill, 7% poison resistance, +23 mana, +6 life and +3 minimum damage.
Snake's Ring of the Wolf: +5 mana and +15 life.
Lizard's Amulet of Protection: +3 mana and 2 damage reduced.
Normal - Act 4
While I have played for a while I have thought about my imbue. What am I to imbue? I decided for an armor in normal difficulty and probably an exceptional belt in nightmare so that I'll get a 4-row belt.
So I look in an excel-file I have with all the affixes made by someone (can't remember who, it's available at the Lurker Lounge anyway). I'm sorting it after armor to see what affixes I can get. The highest level of the affix I want is colossus that has a level of 30. But when you imbue you can get an item with an affix 6 levels higher than your own character level. So level 24 is a good level to imbue an armor if I get it right. I'm level 25 so it's time to start looking for an armor. Maybe I can buy a light plate at Halbu. Well it turns out Halbu don't sell light armors... but Jamella do. I found a quite expensive superior one, costed me 42 000 gold. Imbue time...
Well, it wasn't completely worthless, but it sure could have been better: Poison length reduced by 25%, +2 light radius, 19% cold resistance, 24% fire resistance, +1 life (!) and attacker takes damage of 1. A little more life bonus and I would have been satisfied with it. I'm still gonna use it though, it's better than just 29% lightning resistance. I can only hope my belt imbue will be better. I'm gonna imbue one as soon as that quest is done in nightmare.
Izzy time... After fighting him for a while I realize this is gonna take a while. He seems to be cold enchanted so I decide to test how much. My chill duration is about 32 seconds, he is chilled around 8-9 seconds. Obviously he is 75% cold enchanted!!!
Just for fun I took time, it took me about 20 minutes killing him. I'm not sure I can take him in nightmare. His life regeneration may turn out to be too much. Though it should be noted that I had quite big mana-problems against him. If I had had infinite mana I would probably had taken him 5 minutes faster.
The two points went into Warmth.
Most enemies take between 5 and 8 shots to die. Of course there are exceptions... Those Grotesques are cold resistant and take more like 15 shots. And the fact that they create Grotesques Wyrms doesn't make things easier. These enemies are the worst enemies I've meet so far, the combination of Grotesques and their Wyrms forms a tough combination against anyone only having cold attacks.
And of course Hephasto was magic resistant, what else could I expect? In a couple of levels when I get CM this won't be a trouble, but for now it's really annoying. It's gonna take several times longer than if he hadn't been magic resistant.
But I wasn't disappointed from my reward; I got 1 normal diamond and 2 flawless diamonds and 1 perfect ruby. :) A 3D-shield isn't impossible for later. But the socketed shield will have less blocking, the question is if the 50% resistances are better. I'll do the math later when/if I get more perfect diamonds.
I picked up a nice magic amulet here: +53 life. It's definitely better than the one I'm using now.
Those Urdars in RoF are a little cold enchanted, I timed it to about 25%. But after fighting those damn Grotesques it feels like a child's game.
Even though I'm fairly certain I can take all seals without any real danger I'm clearing the whole CS before I open them just to be sure if I would need the extra space.
As expected the seals were taken care of without too much trouble. The one with Lord de Seis were by far the worst though (not that surprisingly).
Diablo was killed quite easily. I could take 2-3 of his LBOD without drinking a healing potion. Over all I drank 5 healing potions. I was basically shooting, avoid fire and lightning, shooting and so on. It was an easy fight.
Diablo was killed at level 26 with the following stats and items:
45 str, 25 (+9=34) dex, 80 vit and 60 energy. Life: 371, Mana: 158.
Ice Bolt @ 20 - 22-24 damage and 32.6 chill duration and Warmth @ 9.
Lapis Yew Wand of the Magus: Fastest cast rate and 19% cold resistance.
Rare Leather Gloves: 8% poison resistance, 9% fire resistance, +9 maximum stamina, +8 life and 27% better chance of getting magic items.
Rare Light Plate: Poison length reduced by 25%, +2 light radius, 19% cold resistance, 24% fire resistance, +1 life and attacker takes damage of 1
Garnet Heavy Belt: 29% fire resistance.
Rare Bone Shield: 60% blocking, mdr 2, poison resistance 19%, cold resistance 26%, attacker takes damage of 1 and +27 life.
Infernal Cranium: 20% of damage goes to mana and 10% all resistances.
Rare Heavy Boots: Fast run/walk, 13% poison resistance, 17% lightning resistance, 9% fire resistance, +22 life and +9 dex.
Rare Ring: +1 mana for each kill, 7% poison resistance, +23 mana, +6 life and +3 minimum damage.
Ring of the Tiger: +29 life
Amulet of the Colossus: +53 life
Normal - Cow Level
With exactly no crowd control at all I expected trouble here... and got some. The first thing I saw when I entered the Cow Level was about 10 cows. Of course I had to run a bit to try to fight them of, and of course this made some other cows appear making me run even more. At this point I thought to myself: "Hmm... this can't lead to anything good..." :)
After trying to fight a couple of minutes I got swarmed, totally surrounded. I could take quite many hits so I had plenty of time to Save & Exit, which I did for the first time ever with this character.
I'm not sure I'll even try this in nightmare even if I have the opportunity. I had no chance in normal, it'll probably be impossible in nightmare unless I would get an extremely good start.
Well, there's not much to do, lost a possibility of a rare/unique/set item (and with my luck it probably would have been Magefist :)). Time for nightmare.
- BelTorok
| IceBoltier's Report through Nightmare |
| The Hall of Heroes | Sirian's Diablo II Page |