I once heard Sirian saying "you can beat this game on a short sword and patience". Well... I decided to see if that was true :)

Nightmare, the adventure continues...

Stockbroker begins nightmare with the following stats:

Might @ 12
Sacrifice @ 9 (damage with imbued sword: 70-80)
Holy shield @ 3
Vengance, Zeal @ 1
Two unused pts

34 STR
Rest VIT (~650 life)

Helm: +31 life, thorns 5 (Face of Horror on stash)
Armour: Greyform
Weapon: imbued short sword. 5-16 dam, -33 monster def/hit, no monster heal, +90 AR, 2-7 fire dam.
Gloves: Bloodfist
Shield: devious large shield of deflecting (62% block)
Belt: Nightsmoke
Boots: fastest recov, light res 23%, +9 dex, 32% chance (4x% fire res, 2x% cold res on stash)
Amulet: of the leech/+32 life/49% cold res + 11 dex, according to situation
Rings: 105 AR/+3 min dam, +life & mana, dam -2

ACT I

I had to decide whether I pick conversion or not. And also whether I should try for a full clear or not. Doing the ruined temple and killing Hephasto seemed a very bad idea at the time, so at first I thought I'd skip the full clear. However, I'd need every bit of vitality vs. Duriel, so I might as well full clear Act I to gain a few extra levs. I also decided to skip conversion for the moment, just to see how far I could go without it.

Stuff was dying in 2-3 hits, sometimes 4. Not too good, but I could still pump up sacrifice/might for some extra damage. Den of Evil point coincided with a level up, so I pumped sacrifice and holy shield. I'd leave holy shield at 5, since I was now at the 75% block cap. I expected some trouble at Blood Raven, but surprisingly she went down in 7 or 8 swings. I never got swarmed. Monsters weren't doing that much damage to me, anyway. I thought I'd be suffering a bit more, but fortunately I wasn't. In the maosuleum I was due to a big surprise. I opened a chest it and a rare short sword pops up...

Dam 6-27
Hit cause flee
1-32 lightning damage
+30 AR

I tried it and... my damage went from 70-80 to 74-171!!! Amazing how such a low base damage weapon could get such high final damage. The howling and added elemental damage would make it perfect to deal with most monsters. I could scrap Face of Horror and forget about conversion - I had enough croud control and could deal enough damage. I put my two saved skill points into sacrifice and foes began to fall in 1 hit, with bosses in a few more. The hit-run technique I was using at the time was replaced by a more hold on your ground philosophy. I hit them; those who didn't die would flee. Well Charsi, so much for your imbue eheh. Next imbue would be spend on a demonhide sash or serpenskin belt, which have 4 rows. The cave, stony field, underground passage and dark wood were all push overs. Saving Cain was a bit more tricky, since I got mobed by a boss pack of goats. Had to drink a few purples, but in the end that pack and every other monster in Tristam was slain by the sharp blade of my new sword :) The reward ring was junk, by the way. The problem was now to actually HIT the monsters, since the 73% hit rate wasn't helping much. Anyway... I cleared the black marsh and went into the tower. A boss pack of ghosts greets me. I had to hit-run a lot while swinging an occasional vengance at them. After 3 minutes the boss was finally slain. I was happy that vengance's damage, albeit low, was still enough to deal with physical resistant foes. The point spent there wasn't a waste after all :) A boss pack of devilkin on one of the levels went down in 1 hit, except for the boss, who took 2 hits, eheh. The countess got some good shots at me and I had to flee several times, but she went down eventually.

The highlands went smoothly and so did the pit. The cloister & barracks took some time to clear. They were flooded with archers so I had to dodge a lot. Hit cause flee isn't that good on archers, since it scares them away, to where they can keep shooting without being bothered. The smith was troublesome. His extra strong ability worried me. If he was a problem Duriel would be a major pain!! We'll see. The jail levels had a lot of hit and run. Vengance on ghosts, sacrifice on the rest. In the middle of all this I gambled a fastest recov, 39 life cap with some resists. Swapped headgear to that. Flamespike the crawler was no problem. With all the hit-and-run he only managed to curse me in the end, when all the minons were already slain. Bone Ash as also a weakling vs. Stockbroker. None of his abilities were problematic, let alone his AI :) In the catacombs I met a stone skin teleporting spider boss. Hum... after 10 minutes smacking him with vengance I realized it was hopeless. Everytime I came close to killing him, he'd teleport 2-3 times to refil. AGH. I decided to park him.

For Andariel I bought poison lenght reduction items. Cap and armour with 75% reduction and boots 25%. Her poison worked for 1/4th of a second, so no problem there. Easy going swings, and after a while she vanished in flames. Cubed a few gems for rejuvs and up we go to Lut Golhein.

ACT II

I decided to make another boneheaded move and take Atma's quest. Clearing the sewers would give me nice xp and I could use the book of skill! I hope I have enough firepower to kill him. Going steady till lev 3. I cleared the whole lev 3 before engaging Radament. If he had stone skin or lightning enchant I'd be in trouble (lightning resist 21% only). Fortunately he was cold enchanted or so. I couldn't possibly kill the whole mob, and even if I managed to do that he would ressurect them in no time. So I decided to lure the mob into a room and then quickly head back to Radament to get a few smacks at him while the mob comes back. To my amazement this worked extremely well. Go to Rada's room, call mob, flee to corridor, get back, swing at Rada, flee to corridor, etc... After 2 minutes his goose was cooked :) The fist of heavens of Radament's death took care of the mob swarming me. Eheh.

Now to the desert. Vultures make alarmingly high amounts of damage and swing extremely fast and were indeed a major annoyance. If I'd lose concentration I'd be a dead duck. Fortunately nothing happened, but I took some major licks in the rocky waste, which had no where to hide. Stony tomb was a push. In the dry hills a monster drops a +1 pala, +51 life ammy. Oh my, awesome vs. Duriel :) The halls of the dead were another story. The unraveler mummies needed to be taken first. I charged them, killed them and by that time I was swarmed :) No biggie, since I could withstand a few lick with 650+ life & 75% block. Then I got lucky... Somewhere in halls level 2, one of my gambling sessions landed a fine pair of dual fastest boots...

Fastest R/W
Fastest recovery
28% lightning resist
+18 life

Geez, worth at least a stone if this were the Realms!! By far the best pair of boots I ever saw. And what a difference it made... Charging unravelers was swift and I could finish him without getting swarmed. Quite nice, after the scare I once got in a room with 2 unravelers, loads of skellies and a sarcophagus to boot!! By this time the cold novas of bosses were taking 100-200 damage on my mearge 10% resist. I decided to swap ammy to the sapphire of dex +11. Got to the far oasis and the waypoint was near the entryway. I was tired and ended the session.

Resuming the game, my first fight at the Far Oasis was vs. a vulture boss with holy freeze. His other attribute was extra strong, of course :) I had some close calls, but let's not talk about that :) The freezing aura was a major annoyance. I began to worry that Duriel would eat me for supper, but lets see. After some revuj emergencies the boss was eventually slain. More hit-and-run and the Maggot Lair was found. No problems whatsoever, with big maggots taking 2-3 hits, pups 1. Coldworm's poison was as good as nothing, even at -10 resist, due to 700+ life. The Lost City was a push; the most remarking fact being that it layed about 10 meters away from Lut Gholein :) Ancient Tunnels were equally uneventful. While uneventful, I should say that the "pushes" were taking around 20 mins each. Difficulty was low, but the boredom factor was creeping in. Staying alert and concentrated was the biggest challenge. And that's necessary; a multishot lightning or extra strong/might boss might be lurking around the corner... The Claw Viper temple was no problem. I had meanwhile gambled a 43% lightning resist belt which I used. I should also say that Nightsmoke belt had become a must have item - I needed the mana to keep holy shield up and without smokey this would have been a heck of a lot harder.

Down to the palace dungeons. Another holy freeze boss in level 1, yuck! The room was packed with skellie mages, so I had to lure him to a side chamber. Some minions came along but after some 10 mins and a few trips to restock potions they all went down. Stockbroker is a red potions addict!! I chugged more potions with him than with all my other chars so far. The Arcane Sanctuary had a goodie in a chest: a fortified of deflecting large shield. An extra -1 MD. The Summoner died peacefully, as did all this citters in the area. Vengance worked better than sacrifice on the spectres, but could have been done without. I had some more close calls at the Canyon, mainly due to the boredom factor. But while I was there I noticed something very strange. Swinging my howling sword at crushers caused them to flee so, to speed up the kills, I tried to use the charge skill while they were on the run. But as I flashed them with charge they would TURN AROUND AND STAY PUTT awaiting the incoming hit!! What's up with that? Why don't they continue fleeing? They'd stay there helpless for about 2 seconds while I bashed them. I heard charge was bugged, but I could not imagine it was this broken. Oh well, hardly an 8ppl game loophole anyway :)

Getting ready for the tombs, Stock went to town and gambled a -3 magic damage rare ammy. Cool. I saved it for Diablo. The tombs were baaaaad. Dozens of mummies and their revivable minions lurking. My solution for it was reckeless: charge the mummy, kill it and try to get out of the mess alive. Bad strategy. On three or four occasions Stock got incredibly swarmed. One of those was really a problem. A room with a mummy maker was pumping preserved dead. On a corridor a mummy was reviving skellies. I charged the corridor mummy and kill it. But the room was packed with skellies and some mummies on another room were reviving 3 skells/sec!! AARGH. I couldn't move. Skellies swinging and packing all exit squares. I get nervous. Kill skellies near me, but mummies revive them on the spot. AARGH again. Save and exit? No, not yet. Drank all reds. Then all rejuvs. Situation is critical!!! And finally the miracle happened. Some howlings worked just fine and a small exit in the south phalanx opened and stock runs like hell out of there!! PHEW. Geeez that was very close. I couldn't have done it without the howling sword. Contrary to popular belief, I'm discovering that howling rocks!! At least on hardcore, eheh! Anyway... eventually I survived all my boneheaded moves and the tombs were cleared; Ancient Kaa included. The true tomb had no mummies :)

Finally, one obstacle stand between Stockbroker and his fate... Duriel. Having to kill a 9000 hits hard-hitting act boss under holy freeze and with lousy attack rating seemed an impossible task. Nevertheless there was nothing I could do. I had to kill him or die trying. So at lev 33 I put in all +life gear. Stockbroker had 889 life with it. Stick in the staff, hire merc, cast holy shield and here we go. Duriel charges the merc but he survives. I get close and start hitting him. He swings at me. Not much damage. Hum... I'm impressed. Was expecting to be hit for a lot more damage. Meanwhile holy freeze kicks in, but... the attack speed decrease is less than those annoying freeze bosses. Surely Dudu has a lower level freeze. I chug some revujs. Duriel does make some nasty damage but never more than 1/5th of my total life. Well, that's not very dangerous after all. And I'm hitting him quite a lot. After 2 minutes he's down to 1/4th health and, though my belt is empty, the inventory is still full of rejuvs. Bah... so much for the Lord of Pain. In 3 minutes he falls. I didn't even drink half my rejuv stock :) To add insult to injury the merc survived!! (See pic 1) What an anti-climax. Absolutely a cakewalk here. Uberdrop? A decent rare splint mail. Good resists, but no life nor extra defense, so I'll stick to Greyform. On to the jungles of Kurast...

ACT III

I had been putting skill points to might/sacrifice, so Stockbroker was now doing roughly 90-200 sacrifice damage. This was quite good damage and accordingly the spider forest lightweigth population was falling in 1-2 hits, with apes and trees taking 3-4. After clearing up the surface I took on the Arachnid Lair first. I said to myself: "Man, take it easy. These spiders hit hard. You can't get swarmed". Well, guess what? Ten seconds after I enter I'm swarmed again!! AARGH. I suck!! And to make things worse, the mob included a boss pack of extra strong. Howling some spiders away gave me just enough room to cast a portal and bail out. When will I learn?? :P Anyway, after a couple minor swarmings more the Lair was clear. Time for the Spider Cavern. Sszraak is going to hit harder than Duriel, so I better be careful. Scouting along, making sure I have an escape path, I come close to a corner and here come the bad boys. I try to run back into a planned choke point but I hit the corner's wall and... I'll spare you the details. Let's just say I the traffic jam at the corner was so gigantic that Sszraak couldn't make it to smiting range. Eventually I managed call up the same trick as in the Lair and opened a portal, escaping in the nick of time (1 rejuv left!!!). Again the howling saved Stock's butt, along with luck. Had Sszraak been able to reach Stock, he'd be dead. So, round 2. I hire a merc, re-enter via stairs and wake up about half the mob, including Sszraak. Some dodging and manoevering took place and two minions fell, but merc died and another swarming was imminent so it was back to the stairs. Coming back, a lucky wall keeps Sszraak out of line-of-sight. Great! Two other minions are dispatched, but I awake the boss again. UGH. However, it was just him and a minion. Fighting carefully not to attract unnecessary visitors, Sszraak goes down at last. Back to town, heal curse and the rest of the mob was attracted quietly and died peacefully. Geez another close call here.

The following three hours were very much the opposite. The marsh and Flayer jungle were easy and extremely boring. The low AR pinch made it even worse; about half the swings were missing. Changed to high fire resist boots to do the Swampy pit and Flayer dungeon, which proved to be a push. Arrival at Lower Kurast was peaceful. Bazaar was also a push, as were the sewers, even though there was somewhat of a proliferation of mummies there, AGH! I found a bunch of uniques/rares in this session. Unfortunately they all sucked ;)

I decided to try for a full clear, so the temples were next in line. The Ruined temple was first. A pack of wailing beasts and flesh hunters swarmed me almost immediately. I didn't move. If Sarina were awaken I'd be in REAL trouble. Stock hit them one by one, drinking pots, casting shield and when the dust settled down they were all dead. Sarina and her girls were then an easier pickup, even though they, of course, swarmed me :). The Disused Fane was very calm; some wailing beasts came in at me right away but no biggie. I wasn't using a merc precisely not to wake up too many at a time. Upper Kurast and the Causeway were cleared before tackling the remaining temples. At the Forgotten Reliquary all was calm. Little I knew... One footstep took me too far. No less than three packs came from two different directions. One cursed flesh hunter boss and a lightning spider boss added to the feast. AAARGH. By now you know can guess the rest of the story :)All squares of the room packed, Stock struggling to get an opening while chugging potions like a water pump. The situation was looking VERY grim. These monsters hit hard and potions ran out!! Only two minions killed. Save & exit? No, I still had some rejuvs on inventory, so I open it and continue to drink. Another minion falls! And another flees. Time to try another Houdini-like portal getaway. At the very last minute Stock gets out. Round 2. Hire merc, head to the stairs. Messy, swarmy, one minions dies, merc dies, I flee. Round 3: see round 2 :). Round 4: see rounds 2 & 3. Well, eventually one room is cleared and the mob is cut to about half. Flesh boss is killed and some rounds later only the spider boss and a few minions remain. (See pic 2) Problem solved and a few secs later it was all over. Phew. This was another very bad swarming. This is unimaginable in hell difficulty, but I won't do hell :) The remaining temples were very quitet. The Disused Reliquary was harder, as it had two boss packs. But they were split so it was just a matter of luring a pack at a time in to the central hall.

Travincal time. Travincal is one of my favourite areas. I normally rush in because I love the chaos that settles in, with all the blood lords raining meteors, council lurking, hierophants healing, zealots, hydras :) I looove it, but unfortunately I can't take that approach here, eheh. So I cleared the area, being careful not to trigger the council. After the "deskwork" was done, the council members were lured one by one and dispatched with relative ease. The extra strong one was actually tougher than the stone skinner :)

Ok, there we go to the durance... levels 1-2 were a push. Level 3 was amazingly simple (read: Bremm was not multishot :) ) I just put in anti-lightning gear and head on. The arrivals hall was full of blood lords, who were slain without disturbing Bremm. When sparky came in he was alone. Stock cornered him and he was quickly dispatched :) Next was Maffer's wing. Maffer lured to central hall and slain. Then the blood lords. Finally Wyand. That SOB was extra fast so he was teleporting more than a sorcie in a pvp game!! I had to resort to a merc who distracted him long enough for me to wipe him. Not that the whole thing didn't take 10 minutes :) Meffy was no problem, even though he swang harder than Duriel, ouch!

ACT IV

The steppes had some small stair trap but nothing worrisome. Stock could still tank the monsters, so he didn't have to run like Ember did :) The rest was no problem. Up to the River of flame areas are large with lots of space, so running around to split the monster packs is easy. This translated into an easy clearing of steppes, plains and city. Easy but not quick; the whole thing taking around 3 hours, courtesy of an overload flesh spawners yuck! :) Somewhere at the middle of all this I noticed that although my chance to hit was about 78%, I was hitting much less (I was fighting monsters of much higher level). Around half of the time at best. In act 4 citters have a lot of hit points so they required 3-4 sometimes 5 hits to die, not the 1-3 of act 3. The inacuracy was so striking that I decided to just stick my two perfect diamonds into an helm!! The 60 AR bonus might not seem much, but Stock was now hitting maybe 2/3 of the swings, so that really helped. The River was cleared all the way to the waypoint before tackling Hephasto. No spawners, by the way :)

For Hephasto Stock dressed up all the +life gear he could find. Heph makes 60-100 damage, times three because of the extra strong. Cursed it's some 500-600 damage, ouch!! A critical hit would put an end to the matter no prob. And to make things worse he swings very fast!! Upon luring Heph into an open area on the River, a few swings were tried... Heph fought back and in one hit Stock's live was down to one third. AAARGH! Ooops, I'm cursed. RUN RUN RUN!!!! Portal to town on the double!! OK so melee is out of the question. What now? Poison potions!! He's -50% poison resist, so it should work. Hum... he's not taking much damage... 20 minutes pass and he had lost about 3% of his health AGH. OK so that isn't working. What now? Bow and arrow!! Back to act 2 to get a low dexterity requirements bow. Wow, might increases ranged attack damage too, so arrow damage is around 40-50. Great. Find spot near a bridge and shoot at Hephasto from safety. Heph's natural defense absorbed about 3/4 of the shots, so it was not exactly a very fast paced event :) Nevertheless Stock got him down to about 1/2 health, but then he 7began to get restless. His speed increased and he was moving so quick that only about 1/20 of arrows would hit. ARGH. Damage dealt stoped being enough to overcome his natural healing. After another 10 minutes he still had half health. OK, so that doesn't work either. What do I do? It's 11:00 pm and I gotta work tomorrow. I sure don't feel like having to clear the whole River again so I have to kill him somehow. I pause for reflection...

There seems to be no way to kill him, unless... That's it! Level 1 blessed hammer!! Hammer/might is a uber-combo, but heck even Ember had to use a blaze staff to get rid of Duriel! Besides, at level 1+1 (from ammy) it's hardly uber at all. Modulo a sunday afternoon in front of the computer, this was the only out, since hammers always hit. OK swap gear and down we go again. Damage is about 50-60. Hope that's enough!! Lured Heph to a fissure. I split from him and crossed to the other side. From there I could hit him in safety without obstacles hampering the hammers. So I start hammering him and to my delight he started to take reasonable damage. Mana run out, so back to town. Portal up to recharge. Coming down, Heph had vanished. Where is he?? Stock looked around but couldn't find him. "OOOOOOUCH!! He hit me right in the head!!", says Stock. He was hiding behind a wall, the sneaky bastard!! "OK that's it. I'm gonna hammer you right now you even if I have to drink every rejuv I have!!" Back to the fissure and spam hammers. Across the lava, the evil sob was having a hard time. Eat some of your own medicine, ah! Hammer hammer hammer, full rejuv, hammer... repeat ad libitum! He's almost down!! Another rejuv, more hammers... come on! Die, maggot!! And he's dead!!!!! (See pic 3) YEEEESSSSS!!! 45 minutes after engagement he was finally sent to... huh, Hell!? But he was already there. Oh well, you get the point :) I can't find words to describe how happy I was to get rid of him :)))) Stock grabbed the hammer and smashed Meffy's soulstone. Close session. It's almost midnight :)

The final session was uneventful. It really had nothing to do with what happened the day before. Clearing the River passage and the sanctuary gave no problem. Storm casters would eventally run away, but Stockbroker could tank one or two, should they suddently come back and block an escape path. Reaching the pentagram took about 50 minutes. Compare that to the 2 hours Ember took. Stock had much more firepower and above all, unlike Ember he had no physically resistant monsters to cope with. Anyway, the rest of the sanctuary was cleared without problems and it was time to open the seals...

First the vizier. Ember's arch-enemy proved troublesome. He had extra fast. Aaagh. After luring the mob to the central hall Stock proceeded to manoever to isolate one minion. After 5 mins nothing happened, so it was tanking time. Hit one, drink potion, hit another... bah. Boring, but safe. With citters not doing much damage the situation was well under control. Eventually they all died.

Next was Infector. We was cursed. Stock got mobbed and cursed while trying to lure the mob to the central hall, but he got away, portaled and healed. The pentagram provided an awesome choke point. Stock took position in the south edge and only one citter could target him. (See pic 4.) The others couldn't figure out to go around via the other edges. Definitely, AI is inversely proportional to strenght :) So Infector had the displeasure of being the first one to be dispatched from the choke point, eheh. One after the other all his minions were slain.

De Seis was last. Unlike in normal, where my recklessness got Stock into serious trouble, I was extremely careful. Dress up full fire/cold resist gear, open seal and here we go. They spawned away from the seal. I got close and after lots of manoevering two minions were isolated. After a while two more followed them. Then De Seis himself and finally two left-over minions. No problem. Play safe, live long :)

Time for the final challenge, Diablo. After all gear is set this is what I came to:
- Total lightning resist: 69%. (Belt 43, cap 18, boots 28.)
- Magic damage -8 (Greyform -3, shield -2, ammy -3)
- Physical damage -4 (two rings -2)
- Life: 870
Not bad at all. Should be enough. The lightning breath is going to do much more damage here, though. Open last seal and up he comes. Tanking is the first option. Stock can take a full breath so let's see how much damage Diablo can make... Start to whack him and he fires his red stuff. Nothing happens!! Lost at most 100 health after a full breath. Again his main offensive was nullified by the appropriate gear. The fight was a push, even though Stock was (again!) missing a lot of swings. 10 minutes and some 8 rejuvs later he finally perished and Stockbroker emerged a Duke.

The Lord of Terror had been slain and Stockbroker had completed Ember's quest beyond the call of duty.

     

EPILOGUE

Stockbroker's days of adventuring are over. In his journey through the far lands of the imaginary he fought and slew many fearsome foes. Fate has handed him a mighty short sword, the instrument of Light's revenge before which Hell itself trembled and crumbled. Such terrifying weapon of unbelivable destructive power ;) now lays resting under the guardian office of the Champion of the Light.

This was my first hardcore character and I've enjoyed it immensely. I don't think I'll keep playing hardcore, but I know now how it feels like. The secret of hardcore seemed to me to keep control of the situation; the only real dangers being one-hit kills from bosses. Combinations like lightning/multishot, or might/extra strong are probably the only real threats to a hardcore player. As for swarming... I think you can avoid it. I'm just a bit of a reckless player who got into far more trouble than he had to :) On Realms the matter is different, of course. (Read: lag!!)

The journey of Stockbroker was, I should say, easy, but somewhat tedious at the end. Much of the ease came from the uber short sword, which propelled the final damage to 100-220. This is about 2-3 times as much damage as Ember and she had to cope with highly resistant foes on top of that. Stockbroker had to come close to monsters to kill them, but he had 75% blocking and 800+ life all the time. All in all I suppose Ember had a much more complicated task. Stockbroker is probably even strong enough to try Hell, but getting high damage and high attack rating in a short sword is pretty close to impossible, and those two things are an absolute must have in order to overcome the fastidious task of reaching the next waypoint. The low AR is probably even worse than low damage. I wouldn't have much fun at all in Hell and the Hall of Heroes is also about having fun, right? :)

On nightmare the tombs were hard, the spider caves were harder, the Kurast temples were even worse, but the only really problematic issue in all of the journey was Hephasto. This is one boss who is *really* out of order. Extra strong on a very fast swinging boss with high damage is bad enough, but on top of that cursed? No wonder he wins all the "toughest monster" prizes!! This is one citter I wouldn't mind to see nerfed!! In normal he did much less damage and Stockbroker had around 700 life, but in nightmare his damage was way higher and Stock's life had not risen above 900. As result I couldn't come close to him so I had to resort to a magical ranged attack there because there was simply no other way to get rid of him in a realistic time scale.

Duke Stockbroker now bids you farewell. May the lights of Heaven shine upon thy quest too.

- Whereagles

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