Chapter Three: Best of Times, Part 3
She's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Sparka the Charged Bolt Mistress continues her march onward toward a meeting with fate: the death of Diablo by Charged Bolt. :)
Zap zap, zap, zap-zap-zap-zap! :)
When we last left Sparka, she had leveled up to clvl 22 and zapped the life out of Duriel. Sadly, with the arrival of v1.03 there appeared a blasphemous bug worse even than Duriel! Yes, yes indeed, the invisible charged bolt bug. Most heinous. Fortunately, it was long voyage across the sea in Meshif's leaky boat, and upon arriving in Kurast, v1.04 had restored Sparka's powers to their fullest.
As you can see above, Sparka mowed down the demonic beasties in the spider forest. Sszark the Burning gave her a good scare and some serious wounds, but she zapped him down and moved on. Silly Spider!
Zap, zap, zap zap, dead spider! :)
Sparka at clvl 22:
Charged Bolt @ 9
Static Field @ 3
Telekinesis @ 1
Teleport @ 1
Frozen Armor @ 1
Warmth @ 4
Lightning @ 1 (prereq only, not used)
Nova @ 1 (prereq only, not used)
Chain @ 1 (prereq only, not used)
One point unused.
Str 55, Dex 25, Vit 30, Nrg 75
Garnet Breastplate of Tiger: +26 Fire Resist, +24 Life - Duriel
Garnet Large Shield of Deflecting: +22 Fire Resist - Found Act 2
Chain Gloves of Tiger: +29 Life - bought from Fara
Burgundy Chain Boots of Haste: +18 Fire Resist, Faster Run - gambled Act 2
Crimson Full Helm of Wolf: +6 Fire Resist, +18 Life - bought from Fara
Rare amulet: five minor bonuses, including +5 Str and 5% Lit Resist - found Act 1
Serpent's Ring of Thawing: +17 Mana, Half Freeze - found Act 2
Ring of the Apprentice - Cain Quest Reward
Goldwrap - Duriel
Grim Wand of Dragon: +34 Mana - bought from Ormus on arrival in Kurast
Short Staff of Alacrity: +3 to Charged Bolt, kept in stash - bought from Akara
One flawed diamond, a bounty of full rejuvs, and assorted junk rings and amulets.
...
Sparka did not find the Forest waypoint until the very last corner of the Spider Forest, which connected directly to the Flayer Jungle. Now this is not so unusual in itself. Seems to me that about one in four games, that happens, a direct connection from Forest to Jungle. I've even seen it a few times (like this game) where the Marsh was a dead end off the Forest and never connected to the jungle. But I've never seen this before:
The Spider and Flayer waypoints back to back? I've seen the Marsh waypoint back to back with each of the others, but never before saw it like this, with the first and third waypoints so close.
Rather than press into the Jungle, I backtracked to the Marsh. (Sparka is on a Complete Game Run). I barely step inside the marsh when I run into this Fire Enchanted Gloam boss. Sparka's first test this session against a resistant foe. Conveniently, there was a Lightning Shrine right there! The gods, they are smiling on little Sparka, yes indeed. As you can see below, she passed with "flying colors"! :)
There was a second boss pack right there, as well: some fetish shamen. Sparka zapped them.
Did I make that sound routine? Good. :) That's how it was! I kept expecting charged bolt to start to get harder, to start to fall behind the curve. It just wasn't happening! Sparka flitted through the marsh like the fairie of doom! Zap-zap-zap, dead frogs, dead bramble hulks, dead fetishes. River Stalkers died very easily, too, and soon the Marsh was clear. Found a splint mail, +29 life, +17 Cold Resist. Made the switch.
Clvl 23: boosted Str to 60, saved skill point.
I headed on over to the second (earlier) entrance to the Jungle and soon met a moderately obstinate boss:
Yet again, fate placed the perfect shrine at hand, a Mana Recharge. zap-zap-zappity-zapzap. Zap zap. Zap. Zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap. Zap? Zap! Zap zap zap zap zap zap. (Lot of zaps here, but I just kept zapping, and gradually its health was worn down).
This brings me to an important point. Charged bolts are flung out in a big mass, then fan out in a ninety degree arc (45 to each side) for a few yards, then they all turn and fly straight (roughly) until they dissipate. What this means is that if you are point blank to a target, you may well hit with most, even ALL, of the bolts. If you are close to the target (within a few yards) you will likely hit with many bolts, or at least several. At longer ranges you will only hit with a few bolts, sometimes just one, and rarely miss entirely (but that does happen now and then against stationary targets). So for something like that shaman boss, where Sparka keeps her distance, the kill is a bit slow, and slower for 1/4 damage thanks to magic resistance there. Melee critters that charge at Sparka more often get entire facefuls of bolts and fall much faster. This effect increases with more skill levels, too, because the bolts never fan out wider than 90 degrees (the same way it worked in D1, actually). So extra ones just get jammed in there, making the field more dense. Each bolt can only hit once, of course, so in that regard it's sort of like a spread out fireball or glacial spike, only electric.
A little deeper in the jungle I ran into a simply MASSIVE mob of flayers. I soon discovered why:
Champs always have attendees -- minions, really, although they don't get the 2x life bonus of real minions, nor do they get called minions. "Junior Mints" you might say. :)
Sparka found a gem shrine in the jungle and upgraded her diamond from flawed to normal. Gidbinn reward was utter crap and I sold it. Another gem shrine was found in the Swampy Pit, upgrading to flawless. The jungle is always filled with large swarms of flayers, but Sparka continued to have little or no trouble, mowing them down in waves. Finally arrived at the gates of Kurast:
Not all of those sparks are mine! :)
Lower Kurast was fairly uneventful. Made a lot of dough, though, and was busy in town. I gambled a set of Tireless boots of Speed, Fastest Run and Heal Stamina +50%. I traded in Goldwrap on a plated belt of tiger I found in a chest in Lower Kurast (I like having 4 rows). I also bought an Amber Great Helm of Mammoth from Hratli, +40 Lit Resist and +39 Life. Need Str help from ammy to wear it, and plan to leave it that way, in case some +str bonuses turn up on other rares, or I find an even better hat. Worst case, I find a new ammy I want to wear and have to put 3 pts into Str at next level up thereafter. Going to hold Str at 60 if I can. I was also gambling for Frosties, and any cheap caps or boots that came up.
Clvl 24: added 5 to Vit, Tstorm @ 1, Energy Shield @ 1, one point still saved.
Moving on to the Bazaar, I came upon the Disused Fane and went right in. Tada! Yet another gem shrine. That makes three so far this act, and Sparka's got herself a perfect snowflake for shield use! Ruined Temple was uneventful. I put the Esem's stats to Energy, taking that to 80. Out in the Bazaar, Hell Swarms buzzed around, got buzzed, dropped in red heaps of crispy insect bodies on the ground. Right-click-and-hold on Sextons, Sparka would miraculously shoot charged bolts out of the back of her head when they'd teleport behind her. Then she'd turn around and watch em fry. :)
On to Upper Kurast, where Thrashers and green vultures had a turn. Charged Bolt skill still holding up remarkably well. I'm combing Ormus for a decent magus wand/scepter but he's being coy. On to the Forgotten Reliquary, where I am greeted by a spider welcoming commitee at the stairs:
That's the same layout that Hotfoot found JAM-packed with live bodies in Hell Act 3. A small group of just four spiders pales by comparison, but I still wouldn't have wanted to encounter them on Realms. Sparka found rare after rare after rare in Act 3, but always weapons, bows, even the Unique Long War Bow. Extra cash says the optimist in Sparka. Gods and fate toying with her, says the pessimist. :)
There, near the Causeway, yet another gem shrine, and Sparka with no diamonds to upgrade! I prayed for a diamond to drop, and went on, bypassing the gem shrine for now.
Cleared the rest of the temples, found more rares I had to sell. Gambled Death's Hand and decided to hold on to that one. Also gambled Hotspur, and kept that to prevent from getting it over and over. Also gambled Hand of Broc (yeah I was going for Frosties, but also doing the cheap gloves. Why not? Poor Bluebonnet didn't get her Frosties until clvl 39 and the gates of Hell Act 1!)
Down into the sewers, and here come the lightning resistant hordes of skeletons!
You might think charged bolt was finally starting to lose its punch, but you'd be wrong. Sparka mowed through these, if not with mindless ease, certainly with comfortable certainty. Comparing her success with that of o-Lightning, my USEast Lightning skill specialist, well... Sparka had it much easier. How can that be? The fire rate of Charged Bolt is higher, it responds to faster cast items (Sparka's Ring of Apprentice), you can cast and move QUICKLY, and you can point-blank a faceful on one creature for higher damage per casting. Not only that, but no duds, no single-digit damage. Charged Bolt is holding its own!
And so was Sparka. She methodically cleared the entire sewer, and down on level 2, the very last creature in the sewers, a horror, spits out a flawed diamond! Praise be! Sometimes fate is not so cruel after all, and now Sparka's got a normal diamond after using that fourth gem shrine. What a busy act 3!
Travincal was thoroughly entertaining. However, I'll spare you the endless juicy details about running up into the face of Heirophants and Dark Lords to spray them with white kisses, sweeping them right off their feet! Let's cut right to the chase here:
15 seconds. That's how long it took Sparka to get into the faces of the council, soften them up with her (v1.04 AoE-nerfed!) static field, and zap them to smithereens. You see the last of the three about to bite it, with the bodies of the first two over on the left there. Yay! Sparka kicked more council butt than any other sorcie I've ever played, here in Normal Act 3! Wowsers. :)
I had to quit soon (I'd done all of Act 3 so far in one session), so I ran through the Durance killing as little as possible, making for the waypoint. Got there safely, ended off for the day. Came back the next day, cleared the Durance top to bottom (entering through lvl 2 waypoint). Here's one boss I ran into:
Clvl 25, added 5 to Vit, T-Storm @ 2, Energy Shield @ 2
Down on level 3, I parked Bremm while I worked over the rest of the council. (Teleport is a glorious thing!). Sparka had no troubles zapping Wyand and Maffer. Yet try as I might (and I did for ten minutes) it was just too much to ask to tackle Sparkfist. Static Range was so short, I had to be point blank. That was too painful, as was point-blank CB spraying. And even with T-Storm help, CB from a distance was too slow/weak to overcome the combo of his max Lightning Resistance and his healing ability. I finally parked him for good, staticked Meph a bit then zapped him hard. Mephy dropped a Wormskull. Blah. Sold it. Cleaned up the level, the town and stepped through the Portal.
Bremm was too much for Charged Bolt skill, but Sparka otherwise continued with the best of times, having it easy through Act 3 -- certainly easier than I expected. And all the way through, no points added to CB. I'm sure E-shield and T-Storm helped a bit, though.
What is Act 4 going to hold for Sparka? She might have to confront maximally resistant leapers, burning souls, damned, abyss knights. Likely at least two of those, and then Heph and the Sanctuary with its resistant Storm Casters and mages. Can Sparka survive all that?
Not going to use any Static on Diablo. Going to zap his big red ash with charged bolts until he drops! :)
- Sirian
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