During one of the Pit runs, Yahiko found a Hyperion shield - an elite version of a Large shield. I know I had written about a Monarch as a wish from the Pit, but I've made a comparison - a Hyperion offers better blocking chance (44% for a druid, which is in the same time the maximum for a druid on a shield) than a Monarch and in the same time requires less STR. The only downside is slower running speed, - which is neglectable.
So I decided to farm a (still) missing Ko rune and gave the Countess a few visits (unlike Gadget, Yahiko didn't encounter huge difficulties on the way to the Countess). But the needed rune was found on the way to her, rather than on the Countess herself.
Some luck was still needed, though, as the Hyperion shield Yahiko had found didn't have any sockets (and during the transmuting process there was a chance to get less than 3 sockets on it. This whole transmuting process is inspired by @lolien who added sockets onto the Ghost Spear.
Voila!
Now Yahiko had the Sanctuary Hyperion, which offered 66% to resistances (from 70% possible max), among other excellent bonuses.
Yahiko had free 30 stat points (which he had saved for this case, as the exact amount of STR needed hadn't been known), so 127 STR was not a problem. He teleported back to Normal Act I and added a socket to Skullder's Ire.
Now resistances on Yahiko look more than solid for this stage of Hell: 69-61-44-59, he has a 75% blocking chance and still keeps his Cannot Be Frozen status (previously provided by the Rhyme shield), invaluable on Hell, thanks to the unique Raven Frost ring. His MF chance is 129%.
Yahiko still has 14 free stat points, - let's see what new Pit runs will bring.
Only 2 levels of farming the Pit, and Yahiko is already safer than at the start of Hell (everything is better: resistances, defense, blocking chance), in the same time enjoying a good MF chance and the same +5 to All skills.
I had to go to a wedding, and Gadget died just in time that i didn't late from the ceremony too much.
After the wedding i went on vacation, where i had some time to start with another character. A Paladin this time, Old Shatterhand. He too reached the conqueror title, but sadly perished by the nightmare cows. Now i think i have to slow down my gaming sessions, the late night plays starting to take it' toll
Will share the videos i captured with Old Shatterhand and the act final bosses.
Wishing a bunch of luck for Yahiko and @JuliusBorisov for the Pit runs!
That is a pity, @lolien! I've enjoyed Gadget's story. Anyway, keep trying, and you'll make it one day!
Back to Yahiko.
During one of Countess runs, she dropped a rare amulet (and the Key of Terror, - PlugY simulates the Uber Tristram event, - will see if I do it, though).
This amulet (item level 82, so it wouldn't have dropped in the Pit) was simply amazing: +20 to resistances against Fire, Cold and Lightning, +41 to resistance against Poison and +24% better MF chance in the same time.
The Pit didn't bring anything especially useful additionally.
Yahiko decided to continue the story. Andariel on Hell took 40 seconds, - the end of the video (as usual) shows Yahiko's inventory, stats and skills.
So I decided to farm a (still) missing Ko rune and gave the Countess a few visits (unlike Gadget, Yahiko didn't encounter huge difficulties on the way to the Countess). But the needed rune was found on the way to her, rather than on the Countess herself.
That's how my hacked in solo-HC Sorc/Amaz hybrid archer (Enchantress Sorc with Strafe+Valk hacked in on edited rings) found her Skin of the Vipermagi on one of 100-200 NM Andariel runs. Not on Andariel, not on one of the named along the way, but one of the named's minions.
Presently 65, doing NM Meph runs, have gone as far as River of Flame.
Now i play most of the first two difficulty on players 8, to avoid boredom somewhat, and to prepare better for the Hell.
Richie's first loot is a chipped skull. On p8 levelling is fast, first skill point goes to might, and it's turned on immediately. He follow the path to the Den of Evil to make Akara's quest. Another level up on the way to the Den, the skill point goes to sacrafice. Richie changed the slow sword to a faster club. The Clearing of the Den make Richie reach level 6. Skill points gone to resist fire (mistakenly) smite, holy fire, and to prayer from the quest skill. notable loots were some throwing daggers and orbs for money, two magic rings with +1 max damage, two chipped diamonds, a ch. saphire and the first rare, a quilted armor.
After reaching the Cold Plain waypoint Richie shops a nice superior two socketed scimitar with +1 max damage, and fills the holes with a ch. saphire and a ch. skull. Aura is switched to holy fire. Attribute points are shared between vitality, dexterity and strenght, +3, +1, +1 on each level respectively. The kill speed is acceptable for now. Clearing Bishibosh's camp adds some more rare equipment (gloves, sash, boots, leather armor) and two ch. ruby goes into a cap. An expensive short staff goes into the stash, it will be sold in Luth Golein later. Blood Raven drops a jewel, another rare leather armor with FHR this time and a magical FHR cap too. Blaise joins to Richie's army, she gets some equipment (a gemmed hunter's bow with fire and cold damage, amongst others). The Cairn Stones are nicely located besides the waypoint. That will be handy in the near future for trying to farm a nice pair of death set from Raiki and Griswold. The underground passage is a scary place with strong and thick monster packs, but Richie performs good and find a nice targe with faster blocking and +8 all res. He also reach level 12 and now has one of his main skill, Zeal. Treehead Woodfist camps right next to the waypoint too, which is nice. Now back to the Stony Field and Tristram to rescue Cain. The friendly chap also presents Richie with a nice yellow dagger (+10IAS, amplify damage and 4% mana leech amongst others). It's damage is humble of course, but that's true for every weapon at this point. Sadly paladins attack slowly with daggers for some reason, so Richie swings the scimitar faster, the rare dagger remains on switch for now.
Little Richard rushs through the Black Marsh and the Tamao Highland to reach the Outer Cloister waypoint. He sees the Forgotten Ruins on the way, but there is no waypoint nearby, so he doesn't delve into the ruins, he will return after defeating Andariel and finding the Horadric Cube.
Richie reaches level 4 Zeal in the Baracks and he defeats the Smith without trouble. From a chest on the Jail's first floor comes a very nice Ancient's Pledge base, a rondache with +8 all res.
Richie reaches the Inner Cloister waypoint fairly fast. The jail 1 and 3 exits are both near the entrance, and he find the level 2 exit on first try too. Richie clears the Cathedral carefully, then oppose Bone Ash. The cold damage of the undead boss cripples Richie's attack speed considerably, but the paladin manages the fight.
The way to Andariel was uneventful, and a little long to my taste, i don't plan further visits with Richie. The fight went smooth too: https://youtu.be/sttPE6OCJgI
Little Richie rushed to fetch the Horadric Cube. On the way his first unique dropped: a Biggin's Bonet. After he found the cube, he went back to gather some runes and experience by the Countess. After the first completion players number was switched back to 1, because i like those runes dropping more than Xp. with some patience all the neccesery runes came. The hardest part was shopping a breast plate with two holes for Stealth. On the good side, Richie found a nice superior flail with 13% ED for Steel runeword. So new runewords are Steel, Stealth and Ancient pledge. Richie had to quest a bit to level up for his new shield's requirements. Then he shopped gloves and boots with some magic find and went back to perform 1K Treehead and Rai kill.
After 100 run: some chipped gems some charms two or three jewel a rare scimitar with amplify damage and life leech an arctic armor and a prescious death sash the 100 run took ~1h 15 min
Both set drop came from Rakanishu. Richie also cubed i diamond, and he used it with a pole recipe and got a savage battle scythe with +80 ED. I cast town portal after each run, it helps me with the counting. When the tome is empty i know that i've done 20 run.
Let's see if Richie will be so lucky in the next 100 run too! Cleglaw's small shield and Hsaarus' buckler from Treehead another Death sash from another monster
And on the 153. try Treehead Woodfist dropped the Death gloves!
With this preparations, Richie go back to questing. On the way to Radament Richie finds a Criverb's shield, and Radament drops an Arctic belt. With the armor it is a possible source of magic finding gear, it may come handy in the future.
The time spent to acquire the two death item payed back nicely, the bugs and the snakes went down safe and swift even on p8. Richie asked the guards what is the shortest way to the bottom of the palace. The location of the Summoner was not clear however, and Richie found it only on the fourth try. With almost maxed resistances and immunity to frozen the place was a walk in the park. Without greenery. Before delving in Tal Rasha's tomb Richie goes back to Act I now to collect perfect gems. He would like to fill the holes in his helm, up the merc dexterity for the Battle Scythe and possibly to make some blood gear.
Richie gave his two holed helm to Neerai with a perfect and a flawless emerald, and made a blood helm with mediocre stats and 27 level requirement. Tal Rasha's Chamber was well hided, Richie have to track the hole tomb for it. Before facing Duriel Little R cleared another tomb to reach level 27 and be able to wear his helm with +2 LL and 7% deadly strike. On his way he found a ring with +4 % LL and faced his first PI monster, a wraith boss. Now it is time to end ActII !
There Came Kurast and the endless jungle till Richie reach Lower Kurast. The main goal is to survive the horrors of the jungle, collect Khalim's body parts and maybe making a useful crafted scepter on the way.
Finally Richie reached Lower Kurast. He is richer with a Cathan ring, an Angelic Mantle and a teleport staff. After that reaching the Council and then Mephisto was not much time. Richie visited the Ruined Temple to borrow a tome from the library. He also brought back a circlet to Charsi for imbuing. Charsi made a nice circlet with +7 max damage and a wasted +1 poison and bone skills. Little R still equipped it, those +damage points are much appreciated. The battle with Mephisto didn't provided any surprises.
Richie went forward chasing Diablo for now. Killing Izual took some time without any crushing blow. The hellforge dropped a Tir. Oh well. With some levels Holy Shield is starting to last long enough to be useful. Richie reaches level 30 and learns Fanaticism. From now this will be his main aura, Holy Freeze have to remain dormant until Richie reaches Nightmare Act II and he can hire another Iron Wolf. Now the task is to acquire a weapon with decent damage, and some crushing blow would be great too. I would like to try out something new, so rather than farming Mephisto, Richie try his luck with crafting some hitpower and blood weapons. Hitpower recipe needs P. Saphire, Tir, jewel and blunt weapon, Blood recipe P.Ruby, Ort, jewel and axe. Richie saved the necessery runes and some jewels and weapons can be bought by Jamella and Halbu. No exceptional weapons yet, so the best bases are War Scepter and War Axe. The trickiest part is the perfect gems, Richie use the following route as a strategy: -visiting Blood Moore, where there are four well located shrine and searching for gem and xp shrines -fighting his way from City of the Damned to the River of Flame super chests for xp and collecting gems and other drops.
The first craft is a War Scepter with 78 ED, life and mana leach, but it has level 38 req. Richie stores it for possible future use. Second is a scepter too with crap mods. The third is a War Axe, and it gets 125 ED with an acceptable 3 % LL. It's somewhat slower than Richie's current Steel flail, but has almost double damage.
Richie tries it out, and it provides a better fighting pace. Good!
Next is facing Diablo, but Richie gather some XP first to strenghten his Fanaticism skill, and hopes in some lucky rune and item drops at the River of Flame.
After reaching level 37 the incoming xp started to slow by the river, so Richie decided to move forward to the Chaos Sanctuary. Immune to frozen and one point in Redemption skill comes quite handy against enemies there. Richie is strong enough now to tank the boss packs, and Neeraj have some minor life leech too, he has natural 82 dexterity and can change his gemmed helm to the blood one.
Little Richard died sadly at Nightmare Throne of Destruction, so i started a Paladin again. Meet John Gallant.
John Gallant is an orphan found on a cornfield, so he got the name John Corn. He worked as a sheperd first in a little village, but once he lost all the sheeps, while spending time with his beloved girl Nelly. He had to leave and he joined to the army to earn enough money to make a living for Nelly and himself. He turned out to be a darn good fighter, saved a princess in a war. Thefather of the princess would like to marry the youngsters, but John said, that his loved one wait for him, so sorry, no. The King said OK, you have to take this sack of gold at least, and he gave the name Gallant to John. So John returned to his village, but there he recieved bad news. Nelly died while he was away. Now John is on his way to Hell to find his sweet Nelly.
Sadly John died too (nightmare jungle), so i decided to lay down the paladin for a while. I choose a fresh experience with the mighty barbarian. Never played one, so i didn't decide on the build for now, have to try out the barb skills first. Also installed PlugY for the increased stash size, it's feels like cheat, and it is, but mybe it will provide enough boost for my char to survive, and make micro managemant less boresome.
After beating Blood Raven, joining forces with Fiona and then rescuing Cain, Shrek made himself comfortable in Act one and stayed to gear up. I used multiplayer mode to roll a nice map where the Dark Wood waypoint was right on Treehead spawning point. As a bonus the Cairn Stones were near the Stony Field waypoint too. The plan was to gather the Death gloves and belt, one or two Gull and a weapon with crushing blow. When Shrek reached level 17 he visited The Countess to ask for runes to make a Stealth armor for additional speed. Death gloves dropped first this times, then a Gull and after the third death gloves drop came the green sash finally. Shrek also gambled a pair of rare boots with minor magic find and +10 faster run, and made a barb helm with two perfect topazes (mods are +1 sword and +1 mace mastery on that one).
After 600 run Shrek had another Gull, the uniques except the three class one and Rixot's Keen and all the set Treehead and Rakanishu can drop. And right on the 600. time dropped a Gnasher.
Shrek could have change Fiona's company to a more versatile town guard, but a romance is growing and Fiona stayed. After gathering the Horadric Cube, to compensate the lack of the town guard's aura and polearm Shrek did some Countess run to acquire an Amn rune. He also needed some runes for his Steel flail. From 50 visit enough runes dropped for cubing an Amn. The Amn was needed to make an Edge bow for Fiona. She needed to gather some experience to use it, so the couple did some quests, gathered the two pieces of the Horadric staff from Coldworm and Fangskin, destroyed Radament and explored the demon infected Palace cellars. Fiona reached level 25 before facing the Summoner.
Shrek now can use Frenzy, but Double swing is more convenient to use for now. The Warcries are pretty strong skills, giving huge boost to Shrek combat versatility. Taunt is my favourite, it disable those pesky mummies even on offscreen. Fiona's cold arrow don't synergize well with find item but such is life. The Barbarian needs a little bit much micromanagemant for my liking, but provides for me a good gameplay otherwise so far.
Near the exit of Kurast Docks Shrek met the Dark Wanderer and one of his Flesh Beast dropped an Amn. Before entering the jungle Shrek shopped by Ormus and made some hitpower Scepters. He cubed one with slightly more than 100% ED, but the level requirement was 32. The next one had mediocre modifiers and 33 level req., so Shrek moved in the jungle to gather experience. In some cases his life leech was not enough to recover all of the umpa-loompa's attacks, the lack of shield is noticable here. But Shrek reached Lower Kurast without accidents, and there he started to farm Stormtree. The charged bolts made the ogre gulp some healing potions, with 55% lightning res. those bolts are more than an annoyance.
After reaching level 30 Shrek continued the quest to Mephisto, gathered the body parts and the flail from the council, then fight his way to agent M.
Shrek gained the Whirlwind skill, but without mana leech the mana bulb deplete too fast. A nice Partizan was cubed for whirling(with pole and chipped gem+magical weapon recipe), it needed two rare jewels with -15 % req. for Shrek to use.
Shrek gained a Criverb scepter from M (along with a Chance guards) wich has surprisingly good damage, it's better than the crafted war scepter, just slower a little bit. Shrek reached level 32, so he can use now the aforementioned scepter. Whirlwind still not going strong, double swing is a little faster and more reliable, and i can't control the war cries with whirling, i have to use to it how it works. Hopefully with some additional points, and some practice it will be better. Changed the death gloves to the Hand of Broc for mana leech, it's slightly better, but still not enough to use whirlwind as a main attack.
Shrek opened the seals to summon Diablo. Whirlwind could be used well in Chaos Sanctuary, and i felt for the first time, that it may worth my efforts. Big monster packs could not corner Shrek and he laughs at Oblivion Knights' slowing curse.
Diablo went down slowly, but i would like to practice whirlwind, the fight would be faster with double swing and Gnasher in left hand.
You're very patient, lolien! 500 runs for the Gull dagger is an evidence, and grinding till the 32nd level before the Act IV is also an evidence.
I'm a bit worrying for Shrek - at the 32nd level a high STR and DEX character like the barbarian should have better AC - this should be a level of gothic plate armor at least (the same goes for the gloves, the helmet and the boots), and I see you basically havent' changed your armor since Andariel. Probably, the overall damage should be much higher as well, - think about dual-wielding two big two-handed swords. The longer you fight with enemies, the more their chances to kill you are.
This approach can be very dangerous on NM and Hell, - especially as you don't use a Defensive Merc from the Act 2.
P.S. I still haven't continued with my druid (because of my vacation and then some work).
I also approve your persistence in getting not one, but two Gull daggers. Doing like 500 runs for them is impressive, I definitely wouldn't have patience for that.
But on the second point, I kinda see it other way than Julius. I see "Defense" on armors as overrated. Better to find a armor with +life and +resists and some other bonuses, enhanced defense being optional. This is because as you progress through game, defense stat becomes less and less reliable, so unless you're doing a build specifically for it, it's kinda secondary stat, to be honest.
High defense can help you avoiding hits, but on Hell you will be hit very often anyways. Thus additional life will be more helpful, especially since it's usefull versus every type of damage.
Thanks for your insights Julius and O_Bruce. Shrek's armor need a change of course, but till this time it felt safe enough not to invest additional time in searching for a better one. The damage is a bit misleading, with low level whirlwind the displayed damage is quite low, but in use damage output per second is almost on par with double swing. Overall Shrek needs a better gear, but untill normal Baal there was no worthy opponent to search for it. Oh, and reaching level 32 was not a problem, Shrek is on p8 for most of the time and the experience comes much more faster than it would at p1.
So Shrek went to his homeland to rescue it from the filthy demon invasion. Whirlwind started to going strong, a simple bat amulet and the Hand of the Broc was enough to sustain the need of mana and the attack could be performed continously. A throwing dagger and later a pilum with +2 warcries bought by Malah was stored on hand switch for buffing purposes.
For mana burning Frozenstein Shrek needed to switch back to double swing, and the ancients put up a fight too. Against them Shrek made a strenght flambrage and he dual wielded it with a General flail he found in Nihlathak sanctum. Shrek used whirlwind and double swing, and that worked against the ancients quite smoothly.
The fight against the waves and Baal was a little long, but Shrek and Fiona performed well otherwise.
Fascinating and revealing in-depth look at the design concepts behind Diablo 2, and why it remains the king of the genre it basically created even nearly 2 decades later:
I don't know whether I should spend my time on this, so I'll ask? Does this document speaks of the "plot" or "story" of Diablo 2? Because I found that aspect of the game utterly miserable.
I don't know whether I should spend my time on this, so I'll ask? Does this document speaks of the "plot" or "story" of Diablo 2? Because I found that aspect of the game utterly miserable.
Doesn't deal with the plot at all, but goes in-game as to how the game was designed, and it's origins in pen and paper games and rogue-likes, and then going into how each of the classes function and why the randomness of the game leads to it's success. The plot isn't really discussed much at all.
Well, I can't blame them for not wanting to discuss that element. My head hurts at the very thought of doing so...
The story itself I suppose is no great shakes, though, compared to MOST APRGs, it kind-of is. What I always have liked is the WAY it is told through the eyes of Marius following the Dark Wanderer.
Shrek spent some more time on Normal. He get the Hooves from the Cow King, then went back to Baal to gather some experience and gear. 24 run was needed to reach level 60, notable drops were a Heart Carver, a Blood Letter (with +3 Whirlwind and +4 Sword mastery) and an ethereal Rockstopper, which went to Fiona. After those Shrek advanced to Nightmare. In Tristram he felt the sting of multiple boss packs and curse, so difficulty was toned down for now. He reached the Black Marsh and gathered some runes from The Countess. On the way Shrek found a four holed partizan, so he made an insight, respecced to polearm mastery and his average damage went from average 100 to average 900. He attacks somewhat slower with the pole than with the two swords, and can't use double swing, but have a meditation aura as a compensation. Shrek did 100 Countess run with a good map and it was enough to make a Ko rune. Or it would have been, if he had not used up his topazes for a new three holed helm. Now Shrek has to gather two flawless topazes to up his Io runes. He pick Griswold to run, he and The Smith have some very nice drop possibilities on Nightmare, and from the two Griswold is the easier to reach i think. Maybe Shrek can gather some better bow for a Harmony base (he has a short war bow now). In the first 100 there weren't any surprises, a flawless topaz, a Skystrike, than later a Kuko for Fiona. I also realized, that a flawed amethyst would be needed for the Ko too. The next 100 run provided all the rescources Shrek needed. The Ko rune was cubed and Harmony was made in a new found Cedar bow. Sadly Fiona can't use either the Revive nor the Valkyrie, not even with a Piece armor, but the Vigor aura and the elemental damage is a nice addition. Shrek found an ethereal partizan with 4 hole too, it has some impressive damage after filled with the runes for Insight. It would be perfect with a town guard merc, but Shrek would not like to leave Fiona, so it will be used in some boss battles maybe. Along the 200 Griswold run Shrek managed to shop two weapon with +3 to warcries from Charsi, and made some blood gloves, he uses one with mana leech.
Shrek went through the jungle with success. He seeks a base for a barbarian armor (Myth), that +2 skill level sounds good, i'd like to see if it's usable or not.
Shrek may need to swap his secondary weapons against mana burning and physical immune enemies in the future, but at this time he can manage them with Fiona's support.
In Lower Kurast Shrek spent some time with Stormtree and visiting two campfire. Nothing exceptional dropped, but he managed to make a Myth armor, first in a linked mail, then in a better ancient armor. He also made a better Insight partizan with +252% ED this time.
After the short break Shrek continued the quest and reached Mephisto without accidents. He avoided most of the swarm type monsters in Kurast, but leechable opponents falled before him.
Unfortunately Nightmare Mephisto is not leechable, so Shrek had to work out a new strategy against him. The ogre grabbed two acceptable sword from his armory (a Strenght flamberge and a socketed legend sword) and eqipped a dart with +3 life tap on weapon swap. With double swing and life tap Mephisto was managable, but somewhat slow.
In Act IV Shrek tried out his new spear (Hone Sundan) against Izual, it worked nicely. It's a very nice weapon, but Shrek wouldn't like to change his Insight for now, it would need a skill respec and he would need to give up the meditation aura too. I have bad experience with the city of the damned, so i toned down the difficulty there, but the River of flame was not a problem for Shrek on p8. In the Chaos Sanctuary Shrek had to change his +3 masteries amulet for a +5 life leech one, because the incoming damage, but then he performed very well even in various cursed states.
Against Diablo Shrek tried out the Hone Sundan with three shaels. It worked, but spear mastery was missed for additional attack rating boost, and Shrek had to drink some blue potions for mana.
Then Shrek went home, on the first area the skeleton archers were annoying, but after that the way was smooth to Nihlathak temple. After finding a nice Crainte Vomir, Shrek decided to spend some time by Pindle. Here he can use his find item skill on it's fullest. The plan is to find some nice runes and find a good runeword base weapon. Either Obedience, passion or Crescent Moon would be very nice. The main goal however is to gather some experience and Shrek can clear the temple steppes on p8 with good pace.
In the first 20 row Pindle and his bundle gave me the beforementioned Crainte Vomir and an Ali-blade, also Shrek just didn't reached level 72. In the next 80 run interesting drops was another Crainte, a Spirit Forge plate, an ethereal Radament's Sphere, Magnus gloves and two Sigon helm. Highest rune drop was a Dol.
Running through my stash i noticed, that Shrek has a Steeldriver (Great Maul, +238 ED, +40 IAS, -50 req.), upped to Martel de Fer it has 270 average damage, Shrek current Insight pole has 196. So i would like to try out how Shrek fares without the Meditation aura.
For this Shrek needed a respec, and now only one respec remained. But the Steeldriver seems to work fine for now, killing Pindle band is noticably faster. To test further his new weapon, Shrek went on questing. On the first level of Nihlhatak's temple he found a Ko. On the third floor the skeletons were annoying again, but Nihlathak falled with ease. I worried a little about the ancients, but Shrek could handle them without problem, however they killed Fiona.
To Baal a very nice map was rolled, the throne was only two turn away from the second level waypoint.
For farming difficulty was toned down to p3. Baal dropped in the first 20 run a Laying of Hands, and a Bloodtree Stomp. Steeldriver has better base damage, but that +50 crushing blow worth a trying. With some gear change Shrek could change the Laying of Hands too.
After some testing it was obvious that the Steeldriver provide a safer and faster play. The damage was enough to compensate the lack of crushing blow, even against Baal (at least on p3)
Shrek died while farming Baal by Infector and minions. I raised the difficulty for more experience, forgot to renew the warcries and some nasty bossmods were active too (mana burn i think, but not sure)
I made some test play with Shrek after his death with changing Fiona for a desert merc. After another death by Hell Countess farming i made a new barbarian character.
After collecting the death set and two Gull again (this time it took over 1500 Rakanishu and Treehead kill), Freddie reached Hell difficulty without death, but died while farming the Pit. I share his fight against nightmare Baal too.
Diablo 2 remaster isn't in the works yet because the leaderboards are clogged with hackers.
“With Diablo [2] the big one is the botters and the spamming is out of control, [people asking] could we please fix that. Keep rolling seasons but maybe eventually be good enough at combating them that you see real names at the top of the leaderboard again.”
I have heard of this statement from Blizzard before and I was not surprised. Bots were one of the reasons I avoided multiplayer in that game like a plague. They have to deal with some problem if they intend to make the remaster.
Thanks Julius and O_Bruce! After trying out the Barbarian i choose to return to the roots and "rolled" a necromancer.
Meet with Sebastian, the Summoner.
Tales of Sebastian
Angel Hunt
It seems that gathering a Gull and the two Death pieces is the standard for me from now on. After some minor questing Sebastian did some Rakanishu and Treehead runs, but this time Bone Ash was added to the list too. Bone Ash has some stellar drops, some really unique at this stage, like all the Angelic set, rare items with sockets or rings with life leech/amulets with mana leech.
I planned 5K run, but got bored after around 800, when i found the death sash. The first Gull dropped before Sebastian finished his first 100 run, and Bane Ash dropped two set amulet, one from Civerb's and the other from Cathan's. Two Cathan's Seal was dropped too. From the Angelic set several sickle and a mantle was dropped. After some try i found a nice arrangement with Cairn Stones and Tree of Infuss close to the waypoints and some shrines along the way to up gems.
Some interesting loot: A jewel and a shimmering grand charm:
The first Gull from Rakanishu on the 91. kill:
Crushflange and Angelic Mantle from Bone Ash:
Several Arctic Furs was collected by Rakanishu and Treehead Woodfist, and the first Arctic Binding was dropped by a Wraith boss:
The first pair of Death gloves, from Treehead:
Nokozan Relic from Bone Ash, no real use, but nice to see in the collection:
A pretty awesome rare amulet:
Another Gull:
A pretty unexpected Greyform from one of the monster in the Dark Wood:
Now this is quite interesting, because normally no monster can drop Greyform in the Dark Woods, it's a level 5 area, bossmonsters are level 8 there and Treehead the lone unique boss is level 8 too, while Greyform is level 10. On the screenshot we can see, that this Greyform was dropped by a level 11 monster. How is that possible? I have the answer, but i'm curious if someone can guess it right too!
At last the Death sash was dropped from Rakanishu:
Through the 800 run some gold was gathered and Sebastian used it for gambling some nice boots, gloves and helms. Rare gloves with magic find:
A rare Grim Helm with one socket:
Another rare helm with two open socket. When Sebastian gathered the necessary topazes to fill it the grim helm went to the rogue merc.
A circle with life leech, which was changed the Grim Helm on the merc:
Sebastian didn't completed the Angelic set, but did the Hsarus set (to my surprise).
He used the Arctic fur and belt for magic find first, then -when three perfect topazes were made- a ring mail with three Ptopazes.
A snippet from Sebastian adventure on the death and Gull hunt:
Now this is quite interesting, because normally no monster can drop Greyform in the Dark Woods, it's a level 5 area, bossmonsters are level 8 there and Treehead the lone unique boss is level 8 too, while Greyform is level 10. On the screenshot we can see, that this Greyform was dropped by a level 11 monster. How is that possible? I have the answer, but i'm curious if someone can guess it right too!
Item Level: Chests and monsters must be at least this level to drop the item Greyform is a normal Unique Body Armor with an item level of 10. On your screenshot it shows the item level of 11, though. Area Level on Normal of the Darkwood area is 5. In Normal difficulty, the game uses monster levels defined in MonStats.txt, a. Champions (Berserker, Champion, Fanatic, Ghostly, Possessed): +2 b. Super Uniques, Uniques, and Minions: +3 In Nightmare and Hell, monster level is determined by area level (Alvl), a. Regular monsters: mlvl = Alvl b. Champions (Berserker, Champion, Fanatic, Ghostly, Possessed): +2 c. Super Uniques, Uniques, and Minions: +3 Act Bosses use the monster levels in MonStats.txt, unmodified.
Comments
During one of the Pit runs, Yahiko found a Hyperion shield - an elite version of a Large shield. I know I had written about a Monarch as a wish from the Pit, but I've made a comparison - a Hyperion offers better blocking chance (44% for a druid, which is in the same time the maximum for a druid on a shield) than a Monarch and in the same time requires less STR. The only downside is slower running speed, - which is neglectable.
So I decided to farm a (still) missing Ko rune and gave the Countess a few visits (unlike Gadget, Yahiko didn't encounter huge difficulties on the way to the Countess). But the needed rune was found on the way to her, rather than on the Countess herself.
Some luck was still needed, though, as the Hyperion shield Yahiko had found didn't have any sockets (and during the transmuting process there was a chance to get less than 3 sockets on it. This whole transmuting process is inspired by @lolien who added sockets onto the Ghost Spear.
Voila!
Now Yahiko had the Sanctuary Hyperion, which offered 66% to resistances (from 70% possible max), among other excellent bonuses.
Yahiko had free 30 stat points (which he had saved for this case, as the exact amount of STR needed hadn't been known), so 127 STR was not a problem. He teleported back to Normal Act I and added a socket to Skullder's Ire.
Now resistances on Yahiko look more than solid for this stage of Hell: 69-61-44-59, he has a 75% blocking chance and still keeps his Cannot Be Frozen status (previously provided by the Rhyme shield), invaluable on Hell, thanks to the unique Raven Frost ring. His MF chance is 129%.
Yahiko still has 14 free stat points, - let's see what new Pit runs will bring.
Only 2 levels of farming the Pit, and Yahiko is already safer than at the start of Hell (everything is better: resistances, defense, blocking chance), in the same time enjoying a good MF chance and the same +5 to All skills.
The Adventures of Gadget Hackwrench
and the weddingI had to go to a wedding, and Gadget died just in time that i didn't late from the ceremony too much.
After the wedding i went on vacation, where i had some time to start with another character. A Paladin this time, Old Shatterhand. He too reached the conqueror title, but sadly perished by the nightmare cows. Now i think i have to slow down my gaming sessions, the late night plays starting to take it' toll
Will share the videos i captured with Old Shatterhand and the act final bosses.
Wishing a bunch of luck for Yahiko and @JuliusBorisov for the Pit runs!
Back to Yahiko.
During one of Countess runs, she dropped a rare amulet (and the Key of Terror, - PlugY simulates the Uber Tristram event, - will see if I do it, though).
This amulet (item level 82, so it wouldn't have dropped in the Pit) was simply amazing: +20 to resistances against Fire, Cold and Lightning, +41 to resistance against Poison and +24% better MF chance in the same time.
The Pit didn't bring anything especially useful additionally.
Yahiko decided to continue the story. Andariel on Hell took 40 seconds, - the end of the video (as usual) shows Yahiko's inventory, stats and skills.
Andariel dropped The Face of Horror (Mask) - a low-level helmet for this stage of the game.
Presently 65, doing NM Meph runs, have gone as far as River of Flame.
Now i choose an energic person, a zealot paladin again.
Meet Little Richard:
The Adventures of Little Richard
P8 and Tutti-FruttiNow i play most of the first two difficulty on players 8, to avoid boredom somewhat, and to prepare better for the Hell.
Richie's first loot is a chipped skull. On p8 levelling is fast, first skill point goes to might, and it's turned on immediately. He follow the path to the Den of Evil to make Akara's quest. Another level up on the way to the Den, the skill point goes to sacrafice. Richie changed the slow sword to a faster club.
The Clearing of the Den make Richie reach level 6. Skill points gone to resist fire (mistakenly) smite, holy fire, and to prayer from the quest skill. notable loots were some throwing daggers and orbs for money, two magic rings with +1 max damage, two chipped diamonds, a ch. saphire and the first rare, a quilted armor.
After reaching the Cold Plain waypoint Richie shops a nice superior two socketed scimitar with +1 max damage, and fills the holes with a ch. saphire and a ch. skull. Aura is switched to holy fire. Attribute points are shared between vitality, dexterity and strenght, +3, +1, +1 on each level respectively.
The kill speed is acceptable for now. Clearing Bishibosh's camp adds some more rare equipment (gloves, sash, boots, leather armor) and two ch. ruby goes into a cap. An expensive short staff goes into the stash, it will be sold in Luth Golein later.
Blood Raven drops a jewel, another rare leather armor with FHR this time and a magical FHR cap too. Blaise joins to Richie's army, she gets some equipment (a gemmed hunter's bow with fire and cold damage, amongst others).
The Cairn Stones are nicely located besides the waypoint. That will be handy in the near future for trying to farm a nice pair of death set from Raiki and Griswold.
The underground passage is a scary place with strong and thick monster packs, but Richie performs good and find a nice targe with faster blocking and +8 all res. He also reach level 12 and now has one of his main skill, Zeal.
Treehead Woodfist camps right next to the waypoint too, which is nice. Now back to the Stony Field and Tristram to rescue Cain. The friendly chap also presents Richie with a nice yellow dagger (+10IAS, amplify damage and 4% mana leech amongst others). It's damage is humble of course, but that's true for every weapon at this point.
Sadly paladins attack slowly with daggers for some reason, so Richie swings the scimitar faster, the rare dagger remains on switch for now.
Little Richard rushs through the Black Marsh and the Tamao Highland to reach the Outer Cloister waypoint. He sees the Forgotten Ruins on the way, but there is no waypoint nearby, so he doesn't delve into the ruins, he will return after defeating Andariel and finding the Horadric Cube.
Richie reaches level 4 Zeal in the Baracks and he defeats the Smith without trouble.
From a chest on the Jail's first floor comes a very nice Ancient's Pledge base, a rondache with +8 all res.
Richie reaches the Inner Cloister waypoint fairly fast. The jail 1 and 3 exits are both near the entrance, and he find the level 2 exit on first try too.
Richie clears the Cathedral carefully, then oppose Bone Ash. The cold damage of the undead boss cripples Richie's attack speed considerably, but the paladin manages the fight.
The way to Andariel was uneventful, and a little long to my taste, i don't plan further visits with Richie.
The fight went smooth too:
The Adventures of Little Richard
"Shake a Hand"Little Richie rushed to fetch the Horadric Cube. On the way his first unique dropped: a Biggin's Bonet.
After he found the cube, he went back to gather some runes and experience by the Countess. After the first completion players number was switched back to 1, because i like those runes dropping more than Xp. with some patience all the neccesery runes came. The hardest part was shopping a breast plate with two holes for Stealth. On the good side, Richie found a nice superior flail with 13% ED for Steel runeword. So new runewords are Steel, Stealth and Ancient pledge.
Richie had to quest a bit to level up for his new shield's requirements.
Then he shopped gloves and boots with some magic find and went back to perform 1K Treehead and Rai kill.
After 100 run:
some chipped gems
some charms
two or three jewel
a rare scimitar with amplify damage and life leech
an arctic armor
and a prescious death sash
the 100 run took ~1h 15 min
Both set drop came from Rakanishu. Richie also cubed i diamond, and he used it with a pole recipe and got a savage battle scythe with +80 ED. I cast town portal after each run, it helps me with the counting. When the tome is empty i know that i've done 20 run.
Let's see if Richie will be so lucky in the next 100 run too!
Cleglaw's small shield and Hsaarus' buckler from Treehead
another Death sash from another monster
And on the 153. try Treehead Woodfist dropped the Death gloves!
With this preparations, Richie go back to questing.
On the way to Radament Richie finds a Criverb's shield, and Radament drops an Arctic belt. With the armor it is a possible source of magic finding gear, it may come handy in the future.
The time spent to acquire the two death item payed back nicely, the bugs and the snakes went down safe and swift even on p8.
Richie asked the guards what is the shortest way to the bottom of the palace. The location of the Summoner was not clear however, and Richie found it only on the fourth try. With almost maxed resistances and immunity to frozen the place was a walk in the park. Without greenery.
Before delving in Tal Rasha's tomb Richie goes back to Act I now to collect perfect gems. He would like to fill the holes in his helm, up the merc dexterity for the Battle Scythe and possibly to make some blood gear.
Richie gave his two holed helm to Neerai with a perfect and a flawless emerald, and made a blood helm with mediocre stats and 27 level requirement. Tal Rasha's Chamber was well hided, Richie have to track the hole tomb for it.
Before facing Duriel Little R cleared another tomb to reach level 27 and be able to wear his helm with +2 LL and 7% deadly strike. On his way he found a ring with +4 % LL and faced his first PI monster, a wraith boss.
Now it is time to end ActII !
The Adventures of Little Richard
Down by the RiversideThere Came Kurast and the endless jungle till Richie reach Lower Kurast. The main goal is to survive the horrors of the jungle, collect Khalim's body parts and maybe making a useful crafted scepter on the way.
Finally Richie reached Lower Kurast. He is richer with a Cathan ring, an Angelic Mantle and a teleport staff.
After that reaching the Council and then Mephisto was not much time. Richie visited the Ruined Temple to borrow a tome from the library. He also brought back a circlet to Charsi for imbuing. Charsi made a nice circlet with +7 max damage and a wasted +1 poison and bone skills. Little R still equipped it, those +damage points are much appreciated.
The battle with Mephisto didn't provided any surprises.
Richie went forward chasing Diablo for now. Killing Izual took some time without any crushing blow. The hellforge dropped a Tir. Oh well. With some levels Holy Shield is starting to last long enough to be useful. Richie reaches level 30 and learns Fanaticism. From now this will be his main aura, Holy Freeze have to remain dormant until Richie reaches Nightmare Act II and he can hire another Iron Wolf.
Now the task is to acquire a weapon with decent damage, and some crushing blow would be great too. I would like to try out something new, so rather than farming Mephisto, Richie try his luck with crafting some hitpower and blood weapons. Hitpower recipe needs P. Saphire, Tir, jewel and blunt weapon, Blood recipe P.Ruby, Ort, jewel and axe. Richie saved the necessery runes and some jewels and weapons can be bought by Jamella and Halbu. No exceptional weapons yet, so the best bases are War Scepter and War Axe. The trickiest part is the perfect gems, Richie use the following route as a strategy:
-visiting Blood Moore, where there are four well located shrine and searching for gem and xp shrines
-fighting his way from City of the Damned to the River of Flame super chests for xp and collecting gems and other drops.
The first craft is a War Scepter with 78 ED, life and mana leach, but it has level 38 req. Richie stores it for possible future use. Second is a scepter too with crap mods. The third is a War Axe, and it gets 125 ED with an acceptable 3 % LL. It's somewhat slower than Richie's current Steel flail, but has almost double damage.
Richie tries it out, and it provides a better fighting pace. Good!
Next is facing Diablo, but Richie gather some XP first to strenghten his Fanaticism skill, and hopes in some lucky rune and item drops at the River of Flame.
After reaching level 37 the incoming xp started to slow by the river, so Richie decided to move forward to the Chaos Sanctuary. Immune to frozen and one point in Redemption skill comes quite handy against enemies there. Richie is strong enough now to tank the boss packs, and Neeraj have some minor life leech too, he has natural 82 dexterity and can change his gemmed helm to the blood one.
Time to face the Lord of Terror!
Little Richard died sadly at Nightmare Throne of Destruction, so i started a Paladin again. Meet John Gallant.
John Gallant is an orphan found on a cornfield, so he got the name John Corn. He worked as a sheperd first in a little village, but once he lost all the sheeps, while spending time with his beloved girl Nelly. He had to leave and he joined to the army to earn enough money to make a living for Nelly and himself. He turned out to be a darn good fighter, saved a princess in a war. Thefather of the princess would like to marry the youngsters, but John said, that his loved one wait for him, so sorry, no. The King said OK, you have to take this sack of gold at least, and he gave the name Gallant to John. So John returned to his village, but there he recieved bad news. Nelly died while he was away.
Now John is on his way to Hell to find his sweet Nelly.
Sadly John died too (nightmare jungle), so i decided to lay down the paladin for a while. I choose a fresh experience with the mighty barbarian. Never played one, so i didn't decide on the build for now, have to try out the barb skills first. Also installed PlugY for the increased stash size, it's feels like cheat, and it is, but mybe it will provide enough boost for my char to survive, and make micro managemant less boresome.
The Adventures of Shrek and Fiona
Stay HomeAfter beating Blood Raven, joining forces with Fiona and then rescuing Cain, Shrek made himself comfortable in Act one and stayed to gear up. I used multiplayer mode to roll a nice map where the Dark Wood waypoint was right on Treehead spawning point. As a bonus the Cairn Stones were near the Stony Field waypoint too. The plan was to gather the Death gloves and belt, one or two Gull and a weapon with crushing blow. When Shrek reached level 17 he visited The Countess to ask for runes to make a Stealth armor for additional speed.
Death gloves dropped first this times, then a Gull and after the third death gloves drop came the green sash finally. Shrek also gambled a pair of rare boots with minor magic find and +10 faster run, and made a barb helm with two perfect topazes (mods are +1 sword and +1 mace mastery on that one).
After 600 run Shrek had another Gull, the uniques except the three class one and Rixot's Keen and all the set Treehead and Rakanishu can drop. And right on the 600. time dropped a Gnasher.
Time to move and face Andariel!
The Adventures of Shrek and Fiona
I'm a BelieverShrek could have change Fiona's company to a more versatile town guard, but a romance is growing and Fiona stayed. After gathering the Horadric Cube, to compensate the lack of the town guard's aura and polearm Shrek did some Countess run to acquire an Amn rune. He also needed some runes for his Steel flail. From 50 visit enough runes dropped for cubing an Amn. The Amn was needed to make an Edge bow for Fiona.
She needed to gather some experience to use it, so the couple did some quests, gathered the two pieces of the Horadric staff from Coldworm and Fangskin, destroyed Radament and explored the demon infected Palace cellars. Fiona reached level 25 before facing the Summoner.
Shrek now can use Frenzy, but Double swing is more convenient to use for now. The Warcries are pretty strong skills, giving huge boost to Shrek combat versatility. Taunt is my favourite, it disable those pesky mummies even on offscreen. Fiona's cold arrow don't synergize well with find item but such is life. The Barbarian needs a little bit much micromanagemant for my liking, but provides for me a good gameplay otherwise so far.
Time for Shrek to delve into Duriel's lair.
The Adventures of Shrek and Fiona
Like Wow!Near the exit of Kurast Docks Shrek met the Dark Wanderer and one of his Flesh Beast dropped an Amn.
Before entering the jungle Shrek shopped by Ormus and made some hitpower Scepters. He cubed one with slightly more than 100% ED, but the level requirement was 32. The next one had mediocre modifiers and 33 level req., so Shrek moved in the jungle to gather experience. In some cases his life leech was not enough to recover all of the umpa-loompa's attacks, the lack of shield is noticable here. But Shrek reached Lower Kurast without accidents, and there he started to farm Stormtree. The charged bolts made the ogre gulp some healing potions, with 55% lightning res. those bolts are more than an annoyance.
After reaching level 30 Shrek continued the quest to Mephisto, gathered the body parts and the flail from the council, then fight his way to agent M.
Shrek gained the Whirlwind skill, but without mana leech the mana bulb deplete too fast. A nice Partizan was cubed for whirling(with pole and chipped gem+magical weapon recipe), it needed two rare jewels with -15 % req. for Shrek to use.
Shrek gained a Criverb scepter from M (along with a Chance guards) wich has surprisingly good damage, it's better than the crafted war scepter, just slower a little bit. Shrek reached level 32, so he can use now the aforementioned scepter. Whirlwind still not going strong, double swing is a little faster and more reliable, and i can't control the war cries with whirling, i have to use to it how it works. Hopefully with some additional points, and some practice it will be better. Changed the death gloves to the Hand of Broc for mana leech, it's slightly better, but still not enough to use whirlwind as a main attack.
Shrek opened the seals to summon Diablo. Whirlwind could be used well in Chaos Sanctuary, and i felt for the first time, that it may worth my efforts. Big monster packs could not corner Shrek and he laughs at Oblivion Knights' slowing curse.
Diablo went down slowly, but i would like to practice whirlwind, the fight would be faster with double swing and Gnasher in left hand.
The ring drop is a Nagel...
I'm a bit worrying for Shrek - at the 32nd level a high STR and DEX character like the barbarian should have better AC - this should be a level of gothic plate armor at least (the same goes for the gloves, the helmet and the boots), and I see you basically havent' changed your armor since Andariel. Probably, the overall damage should be much higher as well, - think about dual-wielding two big two-handed swords. The longer you fight with enemies, the more their chances to kill you are.
This approach can be very dangerous on NM and Hell, - especially as you don't use a Defensive Merc from the Act 2.
P.S. I still haven't continued with my druid (because of my vacation and then some work).
But on the second point, I kinda see it other way than Julius. I see "Defense" on armors as overrated. Better to find a armor with +life and +resists and some other bonuses, enhanced defense being optional. This is because as you progress through game, defense stat becomes less and less reliable, so unless you're doing a build specifically for it, it's kinda secondary stat, to be honest.
High defense can help you avoiding hits, but on Hell you will be hit very often anyways. Thus additional life will be more helpful, especially since it's usefull versus every type of damage.
The Adventures of Shrek and Fiona
It is YouThanks for your insights Julius and O_Bruce. Shrek's armor need a change of course, but till this time it felt safe enough not to invest additional time in searching for a better one. The damage is a bit misleading, with low level whirlwind the displayed damage is quite low, but in use damage output per second is almost on par with double swing. Overall Shrek needs a better gear, but untill normal Baal there was no worthy opponent to search for it. Oh, and reaching level 32 was not a problem, Shrek is on p8 for most of the time and the experience comes much more faster than it would at p1.
So Shrek went to his homeland to rescue it from the filthy demon invasion. Whirlwind started to going strong, a simple bat amulet and the Hand of the Broc was enough to sustain the need of mana and the attack could be performed continously. A throwing dagger and later a pilum with +2 warcries bought by Malah was stored on hand switch for buffing purposes.
For mana burning Frozenstein Shrek needed to switch back to double swing, and the ancients put up a fight too. Against them Shrek made a strenght flambrage and he dual wielded it with a General flail he found in Nihlathak sanctum. Shrek used whirlwind and double swing, and that worked against the ancients quite smoothly.
The fight against the waves and Baal was a little long, but Shrek and Fiona performed well otherwise.
Baal approved of Shrek's bad armor, so he gave him a Rockfleece.
http://thegamedesignforum.com/features/RD_D2_1.html
Screw my life
They just don't give a damn anymore.
The Adventures of Shrek and Fiona
Best Years of Our LivesShrek spent some more time on Normal. He get the Hooves from the Cow King, then went back to Baal to gather some experience and gear. 24 run was needed to reach level 60, notable drops were a Heart Carver, a Blood Letter (with +3 Whirlwind and +4 Sword mastery) and an ethereal Rockstopper, which went to Fiona. After those Shrek advanced to Nightmare. In Tristram he felt the sting of multiple boss packs and curse, so difficulty was toned down for now. He reached the Black Marsh and gathered some runes from The Countess.
On the way Shrek found a four holed partizan, so he made an insight, respecced to polearm mastery and his average damage went from average 100 to average 900. He attacks somewhat slower with the pole than with the two swords, and can't use double swing, but have a meditation aura as a compensation.
Shrek did 100 Countess run with a good map and it was enough to make a Ko rune. Or it would have been, if he had not used up his topazes for a new three holed helm.
Now Shrek has to gather two flawless topazes to up his Io runes. He pick Griswold to run, he and The Smith have some very nice drop possibilities on Nightmare, and from the two Griswold is the easier to reach i think. Maybe Shrek can gather some better bow for a Harmony base (he has a short war bow now).
In the first 100 there weren't any surprises, a flawless topaz, a Skystrike, than later a Kuko for Fiona. I also realized, that a flawed amethyst would be needed for the Ko too.
The next 100 run provided all the rescources Shrek needed. The Ko rune was cubed and Harmony was made in a new found Cedar bow. Sadly Fiona can't use either the Revive nor the Valkyrie, not even with a Piece armor, but the Vigor aura and the elemental damage is a nice addition. Shrek found an ethereal partizan with 4 hole too, it has some impressive damage after filled with the runes for Insight. It would be perfect with a town guard merc, but Shrek would not like to leave Fiona, so it will be used in some boss battles maybe.
Along the 200 Griswold run Shrek managed to shop two weapon with +3 to warcries from Charsi, and made some blood gloves, he uses one with mana leech.
Nothing could stop Shrek from defeating Andariel
The way to Duriel's chamber was uneventful too.
Shrek went through the jungle with success. He seeks a base for a barbarian armor (Myth), that +2 skill level sounds good, i'd like to see if it's usable or not.
Shrek may need to swap his secondary weapons against mana burning and physical immune enemies in the future, but at this time he can manage them with Fiona's support.
In Lower Kurast Shrek spent some time with Stormtree and visiting two campfire. Nothing exceptional dropped, but he managed to make a Myth armor, first in a linked mail, then in a better ancient armor. He also made a better Insight partizan with +252% ED this time.
After the short break Shrek continued the quest and reached Mephisto without accidents. He avoided most of the swarm type monsters in Kurast, but leechable opponents falled before him.
Unfortunately Nightmare Mephisto is not leechable, so Shrek had to work out a new strategy against him. The ogre grabbed two acceptable sword from his armory (a Strenght flamberge and a socketed legend sword) and eqipped a dart with +3 life tap on weapon swap. With double swing and life tap Mephisto was managable, but somewhat slow.
In Act IV Shrek tried out his new spear (Hone Sundan) against Izual, it worked nicely. It's a very nice weapon, but Shrek wouldn't like to change his Insight for now, it would need a skill respec and he would need to give up the meditation aura too. I have bad experience with the city of the damned, so i toned down the difficulty there, but the River of flame was not a problem for Shrek on p8. In the Chaos Sanctuary Shrek had to change his +3 masteries amulet for a +5 life leech one, because the incoming damage, but then he performed very well even in various cursed states.
Against Diablo Shrek tried out the Hone Sundan with three shaels. It worked, but spear mastery was missed for additional attack rating boost, and Shrek had to drink some blue potions for mana.
Then Shrek went home, on the first area the skeleton archers were annoying, but after that the way was smooth to Nihlathak temple. After finding a nice Crainte Vomir, Shrek decided to spend some time by Pindle. Here he can use his find item skill on it's fullest. The plan is to find some nice runes and find a good runeword base weapon. Either Obedience, passion or Crescent Moon would be very nice. The main goal however is to gather some experience and Shrek can clear the temple steppes on p8 with good pace.
In the first 20 row Pindle and his bundle gave me the beforementioned Crainte Vomir and an Ali-blade, also Shrek just didn't reached level 72.
In the next 80 run interesting drops was another Crainte, a Spirit Forge plate, an ethereal Radament's Sphere, Magnus gloves and two Sigon helm. Highest rune drop was a Dol.
Running through my stash i noticed, that Shrek has a Steeldriver (Great Maul, +238 ED, +40 IAS, -50 req.), upped to Martel de Fer it has 270 average damage, Shrek current Insight pole has 196. So i would like to try out how Shrek fares without the Meditation aura.
For this Shrek needed a respec, and now only one respec remained. But the Steeldriver seems to work fine for now, killing Pindle band is noticably faster.
To test further his new weapon, Shrek went on questing. On the first level of Nihlhatak's temple he found a Ko. On the third floor the skeletons were annoying again, but Nihlathak falled with ease. I worried a little about the ancients, but Shrek could handle them without problem, however they killed Fiona.
To Baal a very nice map was rolled, the throne was only two turn away from the second level waypoint.
The waves and Baal went down safe enough on p8.
For farming difficulty was toned down to p3.
Baal dropped in the first 20 run a Laying of Hands, and a Bloodtree Stomp. Steeldriver has better base damage, but that +50 crushing blow worth a trying. With some gear change Shrek could change the Laying of Hands too.
After some testing it was obvious that the Steeldriver provide a safer and faster play. The damage was enough to compensate the lack of crushing blow, even against Baal (at least on p3)
Shrek died while farming Baal by Infector and minions. I raised the difficulty for more experience, forgot to renew the warcries and some nasty bossmods were active too (mana burn i think, but not sure)
I made some test play with Shrek after his death with changing Fiona for a desert merc. After another death by Hell Countess farming i made a new barbarian character.
After collecting the death set and two Gull again (this time it took over 1500 Rakanishu and Treehead kill), Freddie reached Hell difficulty without death, but died while farming the Pit.
I share his fight against nightmare Baal too.
“With Diablo [2] the big one is the botters and the spamming is out of control, [people asking] could we please fix that. Keep rolling seasons but maybe eventually be good enough at combating them that you see real names at the top of the leaderboard again.”
https://www.pcgamesn.com/diablo-2/diablo-2-warcraft-3-remaster-blizzcon
Which I sincerely doubt they want.
Meet with Sebastian, the Summoner.
Tales of Sebastian
Angel HuntIt seems that gathering a Gull and the two Death pieces is the standard for me from now on. After some minor questing Sebastian did some Rakanishu and Treehead runs, but this time Bone Ash was added to the list too. Bone Ash has some stellar drops, some really unique at this stage, like all the Angelic set, rare items with sockets or rings with life leech/amulets with mana leech.
I planned 5K run, but got bored after around 800, when i found the death sash. The first Gull dropped before Sebastian finished his first 100 run, and Bane Ash dropped two set amulet, one from Civerb's and the other from Cathan's. Two Cathan's Seal was dropped too. From the Angelic set several sickle and a mantle was dropped. After some try i found a nice arrangement with Cairn Stones and Tree of Infuss close to the waypoints and some shrines along the way to up gems.
Some interesting loot:
A jewel and a shimmering grand charm:
The first Gull from Rakanishu on the 91. kill:
Crushflange and Angelic Mantle from Bone Ash:
Several Arctic Furs was collected by Rakanishu and Treehead Woodfist, and the first Arctic Binding was dropped by a Wraith boss:
The first pair of Death gloves, from Treehead:
Nokozan Relic from Bone Ash, no real use, but nice to see in the collection:
A pretty awesome rare amulet:
Another Gull:
A pretty unexpected Greyform from one of the monster in the Dark Wood:
Now this is quite interesting, because normally no monster can drop Greyform in the Dark Woods, it's a level 5 area, bossmonsters are level 8 there and Treehead the lone unique boss is level 8 too, while Greyform is level 10. On the screenshot we can see, that this Greyform was dropped by a level 11 monster. How is that possible? I have the answer, but i'm curious if someone can guess it right too!
At last the Death sash was dropped from Rakanishu:
Through the 800 run some gold was gathered and Sebastian used it for gambling some nice boots, gloves and helms.
Rare gloves with magic find:
A rare Grim Helm with one socket:
Another rare helm with two open socket. When Sebastian gathered the necessary topazes to fill it the grim helm went to the rogue merc.
A circle with life leech, which was changed the Grim Helm on the merc:
Sebastian didn't completed the Angelic set, but did the Hsarus set (to my surprise).
He used the Arctic fur and belt for magic find first, then -when three perfect topazes were made- a ring mail with three Ptopazes.
A snippet from Sebastian adventure on the death and Gull hunt:
At the fight with Andariel you can see that i'm not too good at concentrating on the battle. Sebastian still manages to defeat the demon.
Greyform is a normal Unique Body Armor with an item level of 10.
On your screenshot it shows the item level of 11, though.
Area Level on Normal of the Darkwood area is 5.
In Normal difficulty, the game uses monster levels defined in MonStats.txt,
a. Champions (Berserker, Champion, Fanatic, Ghostly, Possessed): +2
b. Super Uniques, Uniques, and Minions: +3
In Nightmare and Hell, monster level is determined by area level (Alvl),
a. Regular monsters: mlvl = Alvl
b. Champions (Berserker, Champion, Fanatic, Ghostly, Possessed): +2
c. Super Uniques, Uniques, and Minions: +3
Act Bosses use the monster levels in MonStats.txt, unmodified.
So On Normal monster level is NOT determined by area level. If you look at https://github.com/fabd/diablo2/blob/master/code/d2_113_data/MonStats.txt, you'll find mlvl, and most likely the monster you killed is appropriate for Greyform.
P.S. Thank you for classical music in your videos! It really enhances them!