Chapter Four: The Showdown

The time had come. Sparka stepped through the glowing orange portal and entered the gates of Hell.

She was beset immediately by a squad of corrupted knights. The battle was joined!

Sparka at clvl 25:

Charged Bolt @ 9
Static Field @ 3
Thunderstorm @ 2
Energy Shield @ 2
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)

Str 60, Dex 25, Vit 40, Nrg 80

Lapis Splint Mail of Tiger: +17 Cold Resist, +29 Life - found Act 3
Garnet Large Shield of Deflecting: +22 Fire Resist - Found Act 2
Chain Gloves of Tiger: +29 Life - bought from Fara
Tireless boots of Speed: Fastest Run, Heal Stamina +50% - gambled Act 3
Amber Great Helm of Mammoth: +40 Lit Resist, +39 Life - bought from Hratli
Rare amulet: five minor bonuses, including +5 Str and 5% Lit Resist - found Act 1
Azure ring of Mammoth: +31 Life, +6 Cold Resist - cubed from 3 amulets, Act 3
Ring of the Apprentice - Cain Quest Reward, Act 1
Plated Belt of Tiger: +28 life - found Act 3
Dragon's Grim Wand: +34 Mana - bought from Ormus

Short Staff of Alacrity: +3 to Charged Bolt, kept in stash - bought from Akara
One perf and one normal diamond, a bounty of full rejuvs, and assorted junk rings and amulets.

...

In the steppes, Sparka drew Doom Knights, Venom Lords, and Flesh Spawners. None of those hated Cliff Lurkers! Yay! :)

As depicted in the screenshot at the top of this report, the fighting started the moment Sparka stepped out the gate, and she was forced to teleport away from the mob and make her stand away from the gate. She mowed down the venom lords, the flesh beasts and mothers, and with slightly less rapidity, the knights too.

After securing the area near the gate, she ventured north and ran into some Balrogs! Here you can see Sparka "Tempting Fate" and casting point blank, only to turn and run a few yards as they swing, rinse and repeat, and very soon some dead champs there. Effective move in single player! Tougher to do on Realms, even under good conditions, impossible with bad lag. You'd have to maintain more distance, the more lag and desynch you had to deal with, and that would reduce effective of CB. So yes, it's much harder online than I have it here with Sparka, where I can actually maneuver precisely and make it work.

One of the champs dropped a plated belt, I took it back for ID: Plated Belt of Stability, Fastest Hit Recovery. I switched to that immediately (Hotfoot wore one all to way to 3dots). I stopped by Jamella, took a shot at Frosties, and got them! Wow. :)

The rest of the Steppes was more of the same: Sparka mowed em down. Zap zap zap! :) She now had a good bit less health and a LOT more mana! Zapzapzapzapzap! :)

The plains held Corpulents, more Flesh Spawners, and... Burning Souls! Sparka had some lively fights here. Nothing particularly life threatening, but there was a lot of potion drinking with all that lightning flying. Even had to buy some reds! This was with some decent Lightning resistance, too! After half the Plains, a socketed 33DR Gothic Shield dropped and Sparka made the switch to that, using her perfect diamond. Blah, bad roll. +19 Lit resist, that was good, but only +16 on the other three? Arrgh. Less blocking now, and actually a little less Fire Resistance, but other resistances boosted, and with more Lit Resist, Sparka drank a bit less through the rest of the Plains.

Izual didn't put up much fight. Sparka zapped most of his health with SF. She could have humiliated him with just Charged Bolt, but that would have taken longer (some town trips, maybe even) and besides... that's a special punishment reserved for Dumbo. :) I put both points into CB, upping it to slvl 11.

Welcome to the City of the Damned, home of Lightning Resistance Incorporated. Yes, the damned were home, but luckily the Abyss knights and Stranglers were not. How hard was it for Sparka to kill some spitters? Not as bad as you might think. Yes, they run like annoying brats. Yes, it's hard to get close to them once they have taken a hit and gone into "shoot mode". However, Sparka does not fear their little charged orbs. Why? Because they shoot one at a time, and Sparka shoots thirteen at a time! Muhahahaha! :)

Not even large mobs of Damned, interspersed with Pit Lords and Dark Familiars, can slow down Sparka!

Clvl 26, added 5 more to Vit, Energy Shield @ 3

Having survived the city with no real troubles, I am now completely confident that Sparka will complete normal difficulty without a death. The River held Stranglers, Grotesques, and more Pit Lords. One of the first encounters was with this boss:

The River went smoothly. Stranglers could be annoying, but that was the extent of their threat here. I passed up the Forge offramp and cleared the way to the waypoint, chose a battlefield to engage Heph, and finally lured him out. I tried a little SF but the range was just too short and Sparka took some hits. Not good. After just a couple tries with that, I gave up and finished the other 93% of his health with CB only.

Great news! A perfect diamond from the Hell Forge. Bad News: another bad roll on the resists. Lightning went to 38, which is awesome, but the rest at 32, 33, and not likely to make it even to 50. Arrgh. Oh well.

At the CS entrance, a pack of knights and mages came out, and Sparka fought them at long range. She had to do a lot of running, some drinking, some waiting. This is one place where it helped significantly to have a bit of Thunderstorm help. Only slvl 2, and it did look to me like the AoE range nerf shortened the attack range on T-Storm skill, but even so, it helped whittle them down a bit, and long-range spraying hit and run style did the rest across the lava. I teleported over there to finish the last couple up close.

Enter the CS and here they come! Sparka made a valiant stand in the first hall and mowed down over half a dozen, but there were mages in the back, and the demons just kept coming and coming and coming.

I fell back to the river and even had to teleport away once, as four mages came out together. Even so, no actual close calls, just some mousework and a few potions. Back inside and inching forward. I had to take the Storm Casters either point blank (and get mana drained) or run around a lot, spraying. Tempting Fate would work on one, maybe two at a time, but with three or more they'd mana drain me anyway, so might as well stand there toe to toe and take one or two out. I made extra trips to town with whatever junk dropped for some mana recharges, despite some Warmth and Frosties.

The random CS boss was a venom lord. He was fairly aggressive and I took pains to stay out of his range, particularly at the kill.

Knights and Venom Lords fell like wheat before the scythe. Mages were more trouble, and the solution most used was to try and isolate them, then jump in their face and give it to em quick-like. I even tele-CBed a couple of these bastards. Storm Casters were just annoyances, mana takers. Took extra mana due to their max resistance, and lost mana from their mana stealing creepers.

The Infector got some actual licks in on Sparka. Ah, the dangers of using short-range tactics with a sorcie! :)

In the shot below, it looks like Sparka and De Seis are making out. Well I suppose they are in a way. After methodically eliminating his goons, Sparka ran to embrace Diablo's top underling with a kiss of death! I bet he got a real charge out of it, too! :)

There's no screenshot from the Vizier fight. Not much to see, just Sparka running around for five minutes, kiting a mob of storm casters and slowly whittling them down.

The bosses dropped crap, crap and a crappity crap crap of crapping. Sale bait. :)

Let it be written that Diablo HAS been slain by charged bolt, and that it was done with skill level 11, no SF.

I don't know if others have done this before me. I'd certainly have done it long LONG ago but for the nasty inviso-bug in v1.03. Sparka had an easy enough time for me to say that she MIGHT be able to full-clear Nightmare end to end without a death. And it seems likely that 3dots is possible without any sort of titanic struggle, although that remains to be seen.

The Uberdrop was that darned Unique Long War Bow again. I sold it and the rest of that crap.

Sparka was just short of clvl 27 at the conclusion of Normal Difficulty.

Charged Bolt @ 11
Static Field @ 3
Energy Shield @ 3
Thunderstorm @ 2
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)

Str 60, Dex 25, Vit 45, Nrg 80, Life 230, Mana 292

Lapis Splint Mail of Tiger: +17 Cold Resist, +29 Life - found Act 3
Gemmed Gothic Shield: +32-38 Resist All - 2nd Diamond socketed at Hell Forge
Frostburn - gambled beginning of Act 4
Tireless boots of Speed: Fastest Run, Heal Stamina +50% - gambled Act 3
Amber Great Helm of Mammoth: +40 Lit Resist, +39 Life - bought from Hratli
Rare amulet: five minor bonuses, including +5 Str and 5% Lit Resist - found Act 1
Azure ring of Mammoth: +31 Life, +6 Cold Resist - cubed from 3 amulets, Act 3
Ring of the Apprentice - Cain Quest Reward, Act 1
Plated Belt of Stability: Fastest Hit Recovery - found Act 4
Dragon's Grim Wand: +34 Mana - bought from Ormus

Also a Ring of the Sentinel: -2 MD, cubed from 3 ammys, used vs Diablo and Ghoul Lords.

One normal diamond left, two perfs socketed. Sparka has had the best luck with diamonds of any character I have played. She's either two shrines away, or two more diamonds plus one shrine away, from her 3DS. I guess those shiny white stones just have an affinity for an overachiever sorcie with shiny white spells. :)

- Sirian

| Sparka's Page | Nightmare Difficulty | Main Page |