ACT THREE

Skeletor began Act Three at clvl 33, with 25 Str/Dex, 75 Vit and 120 Nrg.

Raise Skeleton @ 3 (+2 from wand)
Raise Skeletal Mage @ 4 (+3 from wand)
Skeleton Mastery @ 20
Summon Resist @ 4
Clay Golem @ 1
Golem Mastery @ 1
Amplify @ 1
Weaken @ 1
Terror @ 1
Iron Maiden @ 1
Decrepify @ 1

All Skills +1 from Wormskull

Superior Yew Wand: +2 Raise Skel, +3 Raise Mage - bought from Drognan in Normal
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
Greyform: +20 Fire/Cold Resistance, -3 MD, 5% Life Steal, +10 Dex - gambled Act 4 Normal
Civerb's Icon (amulet): +40% Mana Regen, +4 Life Regen - gambled Act 3 Normal
Bone Shield: +58 Life - found Act 4 Normal
Rare Boots: Fastest Run, +13 Fire Res, +14 Lit Res, +16 Mana, +98% Gold - gambled Act 2 NM
Demonhide Sash: +59 Life - found Stony Field, Act 1 NM
Ring: +24 Lightning Resistance - cubed in Act 2 Normal (two topaz + ring).
Ring: +47 Poison Resistance, +21 Life - found Act 1 NM

Rare Quilted Armor: Fastest Recovery, +59 Life, +21 Fire Resist, +18 Lit Resist - gambled Act 1 NM
Biggins Bonnet, Hotspur, Nokozan Relic, one perfect, one flawless and one normal Diamond.

The wanderer's flesh pups provided Skeletorr with corpses to raise five mages. Thusly armed, he trekked into the Spider Forest in search of the Golden Bird. Skel's first encounter? A Lightning Enchanted Stone Skin jungle bunny. Great. Iron Maiden (now at slvl 1+1) offered little progress. There were a couple of blowdart fetishes along for the ride but I managed to Terror them out of the fight. The ape's minions provided the only source of new recruits. Skel gave ground and fell back to the front door of the docks where he ran out of room and had to make a stand. I kept the boss occupied with numerous golems while the mages made slow progress with their shots. I longed for Lower Resist curse to speed the kill, but that would have to wait another level and a half. I should have it before reaching the Bazaar, but that didn't help here. I was down to one mage and no corpses by the end of the fight.

Blowdart fetishes turned out in large numbers, wreaking havoc on my troops. After the fourth attempt to round up a complete army was beaten back to dust by blowdarts, I knew a change of plan was needed. Terror was not enough to scare them off, golems were not enough to decoy them, and my mages in particular were too weak to take more than a few hits. Raising warriors didn't help much, either. They would chase the little brats away, run into more of them, and die. I had a ready solution for that, but I had no intention of playing that card until the game left me with no choice. I wanted to see what I could do first.

If low level Iron Maiden and my weak troops couldn't get it done, and Terror couldn't get it done, what did that leave me? Weaken!

Don't laugh at Weaken. What I needed most now was stronger minions, but barring that, I could substitute Weaken. Against physical attacks, Weaken was like giving my troops an extra 50% life. The curse starts at a wide range and decent duration (compared to Decrep, which starts low range and never gets high duration). All I needed was to improve my kill ratio per body consumed: for my golem and my warriors to stand up to the punishment long enough to shield my vulnerable mages, who could do the killing from the back lines.

Weaken got keyed to F7 and I used it against blowdart fetishes in particular. I only switched to a bit of Iron Maiden at the totem poles, where a shaman and some knife wielders are always stationed. Jungle bunnies and Thorned Hulks also drew Iron Maiden, but ONLY if there were no blowdarts in the mix. Otherwise they got Weakened, too. I bent every resource, every attention unit, to extending the life and the half-life of my skeletal warriors, for only thereby could I preserve the mages. Progress was slow. At times the warriors ran out and so did the corpses, and my troops took a few poundings, although none devastating.

The first alcove held nothing: empty. The second held the waypoint and the Arachnid Lair. Skel's troops went down into the lair, where Iron Maiden returned as the curse of choice against hard-hitting spiders and maggots, who folded quickly with the damage reflection. Skel's warriors could not stand up to much of that, but it was no worse than the fetishes.

I started collecting items in town. Remember Act Three of normal? I had given up gambling, because Alcor's hut was a death trap for being swarmed by my own troops and forced to unsummon them. Well, now I gave up selling items, too. Bows and javelins and such, I sold to Ormus. I also sold him any weapons or armor that were close enough to max durability. Everything for which it would make hundreds, if not thousands of gold difference, to repair before selling, I stacked in the town square. The next time my army got completely wiped out, I'd take the time to sell everything and gamble a bit. No more clogged plankways for me!

The final alcove held the Spider Cavern. Before venturing down there, I did some more scouting. Skel had run into the alcoves one, two, three, just like that, yet there was plenty of forest left to explore. I was close to leveling up and thought it would be a good idea not only to wait for that, but also to find the figurine and get my 20 extra Life first. That first boss had not dropped it.

Continuing past the Spider Cavern alcove, I came to a T intersection. Turning left deposited me immediately into the Great Marsh, where the welcoming committee greeted my army with thunderous bolts of lightning.

Yes, not only lightning, but sparks, too. My army would be wiped out moments later.

Fortunately, those things do have a physical attack, making them vulnerable to Iron Maiden. That's how I had to finish off the boss, once all my troops were dead, including those raised from his minions.

Below you see the carnage. *SOB* They were good lads who fought bravely. I'm going to miss them.

Only one thing left to do now: return to town, sell the pile, gamble for amulets, rings, and boots. Oh yes, and now I have to raise a new army. Skeletorr returned to the forest to undertake a recruiting drive.

When he had rounded up some hulks and apes, he ignored the Weakened fetishes and focused Iron Maiden on the big boys. When the corpses dropped, he let them lie, then raised them all at once to tackle the blowdart pests. With most of a new army in tow, Skel headed for the Spider Cavern. I figured I'd better tackle that while I had an army to work with.

The fight with Sszark was incredibly brutal. Troops on both sides perished so quickly, I could not keep up with the replacements. I Terrored some of the minions away so my troops would bend all their effort to the damage king himself, and just like that, it was all over. I raised replacements from the remaining bodies.

Venturing down the east branch of that T intersection in the forest led immediately into the Flayer Jungle. Say wha...?

Well, OK. Interesting. As much as I play this game, the one aspect that so far has not failed to provide me some surprises is the jungle formation. Every time I think I've seen it all, the game comes up with a new way to fit the pieces together. This didn't shake my understanding of how the jungle layouts work, but it was a permutation I hadn't seen before. You could cross from the Marsh through the Spider Forest immediately into the Flayer Jungle. I correctly deduced from this that the Marsh would turn out to be a dead end.

The Spider Forest was clear. I got a very short draw on that, in terms of the forest real estate, but the forest population had been thick, so I don't believe Skel lost any experience. In fact, he probably came out ahead, without the numerous but low-value flocks of crows.

I had no illusions about the Flayer Jungle. I would NOT make it through there in one trip. My army would, at times, be crushed, and I would have to go in search of replacements... in the Marsh. How many such recruiting drives would I have to undertake?

The first bend in the river was guarded by not one, but two Flayer Shaman boss packs. YIKES! I pulled back immediately and seemed to elude the attention of the second boss. The first came down into the corner and stuck his tongue (of flame) out at me. Good grief, even the rocker from Kiss would be envious of a tongue that long! The first boss had countless little flayer warriors with him, and a few blowdarts. I sent several golems on a suicide mission, braving that mass of Might-enhanced fanatics, then raised warriors from the falling flayers, to prevent their resurrection. The bloodbath that ensued lasted several minutes. I kid you not! Their own might enchantment only sped their deaths, but I must have raised at least twenty warriors from the bodies. Where all those bodies came from, I could not tell you. I'm only glad Skel and his mages were on the other side of the river!

When that boss was finally dead, and all the enemy ground troops had been wiped out, I ventured over there with my own force to storm the beach. We had to endure the entrenched enemy artillery:

My infantry was decimated. My artillery proved to have the longer, range, though. Some units were wiped out when they ventured within enemy range, but others held back and got the job done.

Reduced to mages only, I ventured a little farther and came in sight of the first Jungle Alcove, but the flayer blowdart masses found waiting there wiped the rest of my army off the map. I fled.

There was no choice but to trek into the Marsh in search of new recruits. I found some rather quickly, but then took casulaties while trying to raise a whole army. As such, I had to press all the way in to the first Marsh alcove to recruit a full platoon. Here you can see another bloodbath, with countless dead golems and skeletons (mostly warriors) where the fetish swarm had engaged my force.

Strangely enough, I was not shortcutting the Flayer Jungle. I intended to clear it end to end. The Marsh, too, would be cleared. Yet I had to manage my resources wisely, to save the easier area, where corpses outnumbered casualties, for restocking after taking a beating in the tougher areas. In fact, this is going to be life for Skeletorr until the end of his days: a careful management of what to fight, and when, and what to skip, and when to go back for it, and how to deal with situations where more than one whole army gets wiped out. I found this management aspect incredibly entertaining. I could see it growing old eventually, but the depth of the strategizing was challenging enough to stimulate me. Revives are so strong, you can get away with just standing back and using one curse continuously (Iron Maiden) in a mindless progression. Their short timer can present problems -- you have to rebuild from scratch if you go afk for even a couple of minutes -- but the strategic aspect is hardly necessary because those troops are stronger than the monsters they are facing. These fragile skeletons are making their way across the brutal jungle landscape, and I haven't even played my ace in the hole. I'm very pleased with that.

I had kept it in the back of my mind that if Skeletorr ever got completely stuck, I could "retire" him from his original restrictions and turn him into an instant god by grabbing the Revive skill -- and take him the rest of the way with that, easily. One point in Revive would grant me two revives now, and two more if I get into Hell difficulty and buy a Necromancer +2 wand. Four Revives could stand and tank all day for my mages. What's more, who would need mages anyway? My Revives at slvl 20+ Skeleton Mastery, would do almost 150% of normal Revive damage and have over +300% life. At more than 4x the life of the original critter, it would take an army of the enemy's best to kill even one of them before its timer expired. For each critter slain in the effort, I would have a new corpse with which to raise a new Revive, so that was math the enemy could not overcome: a rolling tide of power that can sweep across the landscape in multiplayer, Solo-8. These poor single player critters wouldn't stand a chance.

But now I knew I wouldn't have to do that. Skeletorr is worthy of Hell Difficulty. I know it now. I may not be able to full-clear, and I may have troubles. I may not even survive. But he can do it, and he won't need any Revives. I didn't realize how strong these mages would be. They are incredibly fragile, but they are capable of getting kills, and I will soon be helping them out with Lower Resist and, eventually, adding more to their numbers. If eight can do this much, how about ten? Twelve? I hope to find out.

Back to the bloodbath in the Flayer Jungle:

The first flayer alcove turned out to be empty. Vultures here in the jungle helped out with the corpse supply and I was able to sustain my army, if on shaky ground. The second alcove contained the waypoint, which secured for me at least this much progress. I still did not have the Marsh waypoint, and it had been a long time since I found the Spider waypoint. I lost another army coming out of the back entrance to the Flayer waypoint and had to return to the Marsh for more recruits. That was a LONG trek back the first time, but this time I just ported out of the Marsh and took the waypoint back to the jungle. :)

The final alcove lay up to the left. Instead I turned right and then up, pressing on to Lower Kurast. What would happen if I exhausted the resources in the Marsh without getting all the way through the Flayer Jungle? Disaster, that's what. I had to secure my way into Kurast while I still could, and worry later about the Brain and the Gidbinn and my hopes of full-clearing.

So upriver I go, up up up up. Finally we come to the last turn, where there is gold on the ground and a couple of River hydras. It was time to tackle Stormtree. I waved goodbye to my army as I sent it into battle. I knew that those bony boys would not be coming home, and I was right.

From the dead Stormtree, I raised one mage, and attempted to fight my way into Kurast with one mage.

Once inside, the leapers and vultures and Zakarumites provided a ready supply of corpses, and I my progress was finally off life support -- for the moment.

Below you can see my troops cornering a leaper boss. That is the one foe rendered completely helpless by my mages: leapers. My boys corner a leaper, stun it, and just keep firing until the damn thing dies.

We finally found the waypoint, after clearing more than half of Lower Kurast. If I stop now, though, I'll have to reclear an incredible amount of toughly guarded real estate to perform a full clear. No thank you. I pressed on. Or rather, I led my boys back into the jungle to take on the flayers in their main village.

We drew rat champs for the Gidbinn. At least there was more than one, though. I get back to town and talk to Ormus, expecting the usual crap ring. Almost anything would be better than what I have now, though, unless the bonuses are all melee related (+AR, +Damage, +Elemental Damage). I pick up my Iron Wolf -- Jelani! Good old Jelani, a lightning mage. Excellent. (Don't want cold, I need corpses). Ormus hands me the ring, I look and can't believe it. +24 Lightning Resist (same as I have on) but also +40 Fire Resist and -2 Magic Damage! Yes! A worthy rare! I swap with the Coral ring I cubed from topaz. Lightning Resist does not change, but now I have some Fire Resist and magic damage is now at -5, with Greyform. I can even retire the Grayform in favor of that superb rare quilted I've been saving, but first I will have to find some cold resist. At this point, I would even take a sapphire and buy thawing potions to cube myself a cold ring. Been on a streak with that ring formula and may yet use it one more time.

Down now into the Flayer dungeon. Skel had some bloody battles on the first two levels, but came out at the end with a full army. Down on level three, I drew one of the formations with the Witchdoctor at the top of the screen. Jelani was still with us, and doing well. I don't often see mercs survive this long in Nightmare, but with so many other, more aggressive targets for the enemy, he stood a better chance than my undead mages, and I was already well skilled at keeping them alive. Mostly.

We reach the room with the golden chest. Endugu has only his normal two abilities? Well, that happens sometimes. This is definitely Nightmare. I used Terror on the minions to chase them off, then stepped into the room and took up position. Some of my troops got singed a bit (someone forgot to pop the toaster. Oops) but there was one contingent of mages that wised up and stayed in the cover of the doorway.

Those four were still alive when the boss dropped, but there were still a lot of minions to kill. We nailed a couple of them, but others would charge me, and Terror wasn't always enough to handle them. One by one, my mages stepped into enemy range and got themselves fried. With two or three minions left, it was down to Jelani and me, with rechargeable batteries in the golem.

Iron Maiden didn't help, couldn't help. I raised new mages from the flayers -- the ones on which the shamen had been standing (you have to admit that Blizz came up with a cool idea, these shamen that stand on the shoulders of some poor warrior, who will try to avenge his leader if the shaman is slain). Jelani's lightning also helped. This battle went slowly in the final stages, but that's how it goes sometimes. You find ways to make do with whatever resources you have on hand. Sometimes that's not much.

At least that lightning looks cool! I wish I had minions who could do that. :) Instead, mine just shoot a single, wispy little charged bolt. Heh. Oh well.

Skeletorr cleared out the last of the jungle, then raised a new army in the Marsh (again), then came back for the Swampy Pit. On the first level of the pit, we ran into a nasty Gloam boss. Casualties ran high, but there were some replacements available.

Level two had some brutal poison traps that ate some of my troops. Water Hydras ate some more, as did the undead flayers. I called reinforcements up from the ranks of the rotting corpses (zombies) that we slew with ease. Then down on level three, I drew a nasty maze formation. Level three of the Pit is always confusing -- you should see how my friend Cyrene gets lost down there in our team games -- but nursing this large army through the maze was a real task. Not even Cy is that hard to shepherd. :)

Incredibly enough, that was the last of the Flayer Jungle. Skel has cleared it out. That leaves only the Marsh, so I went back and finished it up without incident, then called it a day. For a skeleton master, full-clears are tougher than for most chars. The worst fights are often the optional ones, and there is extra work in managing the resources, in raising new armies, and often in making do with inadequate offense.

While finishing the Marsh, I leveled to 35 and invested a point into Lower Resist. (I had reached 34 before entering the Spider Cavern, and knocked out the prereq point in Life Tap). With Lower Resist now on hand, Skel would be much better armed for tackling bosses, as well as the many situations where Iron Maiden was irrelevant. I'd have loved to have LR curse for the Witchdoctor, but I had made do without it.

Next up, Kurast. Those priest packs are going to be interesting, to say nothing of the temples.

- Sirian

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