ACT TWO - Part Two

Skeletor continues Act Two at clvl 43, with 34 Str, 25 Dex, 91 Vit and 150 Nrg.

Raise Skeleton @ 3
Raise Skeletal Mage @ 7
Skeleton Mastery @ 20
Summon Resist @ 4
Iron Maiden @ 5
Dim Vision @ 4 (+3 from Wand)
Confuse @ 1

Clay Golem @ 1
Golem Mastery @ 1
Amplify @ 1
Weaken @ 1
Terror @ 1
Life Tap @ 1
Decrepify @ 1
Lower Resist @ 1

All Skills +4, from Necromancer's Wand (+2), Wormskull and Eye of Etlich

Necromancer's Wand: +2 All Skills, +3 Dim Vision, +9 Mana - bought from Akara in Hell
Wormskull: +1 Necro Skills, +10 Mana, +25 Poison Resistance - found Canyon of Magi, NM
Bloodfist: +40 Life, Fastest Hit Recovery, +5 Minimum Damage - gambled Act 2 Normal
Rare Quilted Armor: Fastest Recovery, +59 Life, +21 Fire Resist, +18 Lit Resist - gambled Act 1 NM
Eye of Etlich: +1 Skills, +3 Light, 1-3 Cold Damage, 5% Life Leech - gambled Act 3 NM
Rare Boots: Fastest Run, +13 Fire Res, +14 Lit Res, +16 Mana, +98% Gold - gambled Act 2 NM
Gemmed Large Shield: +57 Resist All - completed in Black Marsh, Act 1 Hell
Demonhide Sash: +59 Life - found Stony Field, Act 1 NM
Rare Ring: +24 Lit Res, +40 Fire Res, -2 Magic Damage, +1 Light - Gidbinn reward in NM
Ring: +49 Cold Resistance - gambled Act 3 NM

Civerb's Icon - gambled Act 4 Normal
Amulet: +1 Necro Skills, 50% Poison Dur Reduced - gambled Act 1 Hell
Bone Shield: +58 Life - found Act 4 Normal
Rare Amulet with cold and lightning resistance - gambled Act 2 NM
Hotspur, Nokozan Relic, Nagelring

Effective Skill Levels:

Raise Skeleton @ 7
Raise Skeletal Mage @ 11
Skeleton Mastery @ 24
Summon Resist @ 8
Iron Maiden @ 9
Dim Vision @ 11
Confuse @ 5

Clay Golem @ 5
Golem Mastery @ 5
Amplify @ 5
Weaken @ 5
Terror @ 5
Life Tap @ 5
Decrepify @ 5
Lower Resist @ 5

In the last session, Skel cleared everything in Act Two up to the Viper Temple. Level one was cleared, but I got halted at level two, with a poorly executed fight against Fangskin. He was also teleportation enchanted, so I decided to force a new map and get a different random roll on his extra powers. The one combo that can stop Skeletorr's army in its tracks is Extra Fast Lightning Enchanted Teleportation (or EF LEB council, perhaps -- hope I don't draw that).

With a new map, I had to find the Valley of Snakes, and I had to work through the temple again, in search of the way down to the altar room. I wasted no time, but Skel still gained over half a level on this trek.

Having learned my lesson by now, that hesitation spells defeat on Viper 2, I was determined to commit to the top part of the room, come what may. So that's what I did, charging in up there, laying down the DV, then casting Golly behind me to tackle Fangskin, who woke and came charging out after a few moments.

Amplify Curse struck my army. Nasty. I refreshed DV on the critters near me, then cast IM on Fang's pack and spammed the golems nonstop for the next few seconds. And just like that, it was over. I did not get a look at his second extra ability.

As badly as this fight went the first time, it went that well this time.

Dim Vision owned the Harem and Palace level one. I drew archers on both, and many warriors were slain by walking up to blinded targets, but progress was steady and there were no serious problems.

Then, down on level two, for once I skipped my usual routine of clearing the outside and saving the middle for last. Not sure why, but I ended up in the middle and then I come to a window and spot this fellow. Yikes.

I spent the next fifteen minutes fight him (and his minions, and eight or ten horror mage poison shooters) through that window grate. I was NOT going out there to fight him, and it took patient use of my skills to win the fight. Mages had to be led near enough to the window for my own mages to target them, while these Invader types cease to be aggressive once wounded. I recast golly many times, used terror, dv, decrep, iron maiden, and lower resist at different points, and I raised troops from the slain minions and horrors at times. That I managed to conduct the entire battle from behind that narrow grate made it noteworthy.

A multishot horror mage on level three ate all my warriors in a hurry. I had to make careful use of golem decoys to keep him from spraying Skel or his mages. The boss looked like a charged bolt sorcie, he was spraying such an arc of sparks.

Fire Eye offered no serious threat. I let iron maiden wear him down, then used golems and his own fear to corner him, where Lower Resist and mageshot took him down.

The Arcane Sanctuary is impossible to maneuver with a large army. A couple of mages spot targets, then stand in place, shooting, refusing to move. I wish there was some way to direct traffic (ala D1 golems) besides unsummoning obstinate minions.

As such, Skeletorr was continually trapped between the enemy and his own unmoving troops. Most of the fight amounted to one continuous casting of Dim Vision, refreshed every few seconds, with Skel standing scant yards from large mobs while only a few mages were in range and shooting. This was not particular dangerous, so long as I kept everything dimmed, but it was a bit hair-raising to stand next to packs of goats that could down me in a few good chops if they had been a little smarter.

Even so, I had to Terrorize them sometimes, if they got too close or tore down my golem or if DV wore off, which it did at some points when I had to chase away errant specters flying at me across open space. When you dim targets, they will NOT stop if they have already targetted you, so it's not quite as simple as "Dim everything, wait for them to die".

The lightning spires took some time to kill. Skeletorr caught up on his necromantic journals while he waited. You never know what interesting tidbits might turn up in some obscure article or editorial. :)

"That thing dead yet? No. Well, keep working on it. It's got to break eventually."

You can see the straight quadrant nearly cleaned out. That was the south branch. Next I went west, into the stairs quadrant, where Skeletorr found the Summoner. Unlike in Nightmare, when he had swarms of guards, this time he was all but alone. I used a portal to go to town and come right back, to get all my army into the fight. The enemy sorcerer did not last long.

Below you can see me working back from the summoner's area. Every now and then, a situation presented itself where Iron Maiden (vs goats) or Lower Resist (vs ghouls) worked better than DV.

The teleport quadrant was one area where I had to use a wider variety of curses, to attack enemies on distant platforms. For goat packs, it was Golly/IM, then raise warriors from the falling goats and more IM. Or, if they weren't too far away, Lower Resist and let the mages shoot em down. Specters still had to be dimmed, though. Below you see the final battle in that zone.

Highly unusual to find the boss in the east, but there he was, almost on top of the waypoint. How I didn't wake him sooner with troops wandering all over, I have no idea.

As I mentioned last chapter, Skel was down to gambling only for rings and boots, and it had been ages since Elzix offered any rings. Skel had accumulated over 600,000 gold pieces. He was nearing the limit of what he could carry, but Elzix just shook his head. No rings.

However, with the Arcane almost cleared, and a fortune raised, Elzix finally got a ring in stock. I was happy to see it just to waste 50k and be done with it. Didn't work that way. I gambled and landed a winner!

The two weapon mods were irrelevant, but the rest was good stuff. All I needed now was a boot with better cold resistance and other useful affixes, and Skel would be just about set for the rest of the game.

Completing the Arcane was no problem. Plenty of bodies for raising replacement troops. DV kept the threat locked down. Just had to play steady, be patient, and try not to throw my mouse across the room in a fit of rage when two or three mages would pull up short and lock into artillery mode while three fourths of my army milled around behind them with nothing to do. :)

Clearing the Canyon was also no problem. Without Hell Cats, I was able to Iron Maiden most fights and end things quickly. Skel was on the doorstep of clvl 46 by the time the canyon was cleared.

So far, Act Two had pretty much been easier than in Nightmare, often by a goodly portion. Having strong curses and some +skills made all the difference. By now I had settled into comfortable routines, for the most part. I expected the impact of the curses to continue through the false tombs, but it did not quite work out that way. I worked the tombs counterclockwise, from seven backward (true tomb was the Circle in tomb one, on the far left). Skeletorr's army got wiped out twice in tomb seven.

Here you see the second of the tough battles that first tomb, where a boss gave me fits.

Yes, not just LEBs are dangerous. Extra Strong boss virtually unkillable by Iron Maiden, with unlimited healing. Skel had to go scrounging through the tomb, raising a few mages from leftover corpses here or there, then return. It's difficult keeping necromages safe when a boss teleports next to them. Ouch.

The second tomb wasn't that bad, but the third had another tough Unraveller boss. I finally felt like I had woken from a dream in which the game had become a little too easy, and was now back to reality, scrounging for troops, struggling with tough bosses, getting squeezed into bad situations even against run of the mill opponents. This boss here was nicely planted in a room with a mummy maker, which put the squeeze on Skel and sent him running, his whole army in ruins on the floor.

I had to Terrorize the minions away, then Dim everything and work the boss with golems. He kept wiggling around, though, and that extra fast turned stubbornness into effectiveness. Took a while to nail him, but at least the mass of undead made for a speedy recruitment drive.

The fourth tomb had two different bosses, and the worst was away from the gold chest. Magic Resistant and Stone skin meant tough defenses against both magic and iron maiden, while his Unholy Fire aura sent me packing to town every five or six flashes. Some of my troops were getting wounded by his minions and dying off, or burning up in the many firewalls the group raised. Gah, this was a nasssssty fight. I lost a whole army, but managed to recruit another within the tomb, then lost that one, too. I ran out of recruits and had to leave the tomb and this boss, advance to the next tomb, and recruit an army there, then return.

Finally wiped out his minions and other hangers-on with that third army, then cornered him and finished him with just two mages left. What a struggle.

That next tomb, marked with a Square, held the Ancient One. I ran into him before I was ready, and he wiped the floor with the bones of my army. However, his Extra Strong blows were SO impressive, that with Iron Maiden now at slvl 7+4, he was doing himself massive injuries with each swing. He was half dead by the time my warriors had all been put down, and a couple more golems did him in.

That aura was Fanaticism, so he was pretty scary. His own health bar was dropping very fast because he was attacking like a zealot or a dual wield barb in lawnmower mode. He was easier to kill here in Hell, but I am glad that was my golem and warriors he was laying the smack down on, and not Skeletorr. Ouch.

On the way out of there, looking to recruit a new army, I ran immediately into another LEB boss. Yikes.

Had to spam the golems. I could not raise them fast enough for him to consume.

Once he was defeated, I raised him and his boys and went back for Kaa's minions. Had to keep DV going on three sides of me, but this got the job done. One of my mages got too close and an unraveller sneezed on him, killing him instantly.

In the last chamber of the last false tomb, Skel leveled up to clvl 47. I decided to add one more to Skeletal Mages, increasing my total to slvl 9+4, for a baker's dozen of walking artillery.

Not many troops left, but so it goes. I'll find bodies somewhere.

With only the true tomb remaining, it was time to go get the Staff of Kings. I ported out to the Oasis, where a tasty beetle boss wiped out the remaining dregs of my army. Even with high iron maiden, he took some time to kill.

Nothing particularly noteworthy took place in the Maggot Lair. Skeletorr cleaned it out end to end. The queen maggot's room was a contest of breeding power vs mana pool. Could she breed more than I could afford to recruit? No way, not when I carried some of the numerous spare mana potions with me.

What carnage! Nasty mess, there.

With no bosses of note in the true tomb, Skel cleared it out methodically, then hired one of Greiz's men to add one more minion to the pool of targets.

The time had come to tackle The Lord of Pain.