I may continue some new run but I don't have the time to post a full story each time. Anyone interested if I continue to do the same kind of posts I did for my previous attempt?
The Claw Vipers temple was one of the most challenging areas Bart visited so far. And note, Bart does not grind, as in he doesn't visit the same areas more than once. The barbarian had to use strategic retreat quite often, but all in all, he reached level 2 and faced Fangskin.
NOPE. Lightning enchanted adds lightning damage based on % of monster's meele damage. Extra strong means more damage. Convinction aura means Bart's ligtning resistance is not existent. All of that equal ultimate ass kicking. Hence Bart destroyed the altar and grabbed the amulet without facing the claw viper.
Reward for his efforts: no harem girls nearby.
Bart's unbuffed stats and changes in skills and equipment:
If you are wondering why there is throw mastery: The spears are for those tiny nuclear bombs in Act III (and sometimes act V).
Changes in equipment: Traded life and defense for faster hit recovery and lightning resistance. I think it might be worth it, as the lightning attacks can be most devastating.
Bengoshi goal is to become a Wind Druid like its great predecessor Yahiko. But as the wind skills unlock late, he will start by using fire skills and then respec when he hits level 18.
First fight against an unique monster.
Bengoshi goes to rescue Deckard Cain and gets a nice shield as a reward.
Bengoshi finds a book that leads to an ancient tower. The Countess gives some good runes drop.
The fight against the Smith goes nicely. He has lot of HP but Molten Boulder is insane at low level. It literally destroys everyone.
Arcane Sanctuary and Tal Rasha's tomb were much more of a chore than I anticipated and it was due to physical-immune ghosts. Bart has berserk skill, that is true. However, it comes with drawbacks and without grinding, the damage Bart was doing was still not impressive. They were a pain to deal with if they don't focus on mercenary due to their mana drain. Berserk = 0 defense = getting hit a lot = instant mana drain = using tons of mana potions.
So, clearing up AS took a lot of time, especially since I choose the right direction on my 4th try. And the Tomb of Tal Rasha spawned ghosts, of course, significantly slowing down my progress. But finally:
Time to battle Duriel:
Good news? It took only 1 Full Rejuvation potion and one trip back to town to replenish ordinary health potions. The bad news? The loot.
I felt as if I was struck in the fave with Duriel's claw, to be honest. The charm was +1-2 cold damage, if you were wondering...
I think you can wait with respec until you finish normal difficulty. The only fire-immune monster you are likely to encounter is Grand Vizer of Chaos in Chaos Sanctuary and your mercenary can make a quick work of him.
The first problematic thing was The Spider Cavern, Shaark the Burning and its minions in particular. They do a huge amount of damage and are quite resistant, fast-healing and they do run away when injured. This is the time I actually started using the Heart of the Volverine charges from the Passion Runeword, just to earn little bit more attack rating and damage.
The second was Flyer's Dungeons, with my greatest and beloved fans in form of mini nukes aka. Undead Soul Killers. Thankfully, this time around I was able to make them focus on the mercenary. I also noticed that I haven't been doing much with throwing weapons, so Merc did all the job.
Another problem was Ruined Temple, the spiders in particular. Aside from being resistant to damage and all that, they have insanely strong poison that practically forced me to go back to city multiple times.
Meanwhile, Bart bought himself a new armor with ~750 defense. He needed to respec to be able to wear it, though. Also, Bart found a +30% enhanced damage, +7% fhr gem and inserted it in Aldur's Weapon. I forgot about taking the screenshots of the stats and skills, but I'll provide them in the next update.
Travincal wasn't that bad, actually. The only problem was one Council Member spawned with immunity to physical damage, which was bad. It also proritizing attacking me rather than merc, and with Cursed and 0 defense from Berserk, it was not very good encounter.
With Durace of Hate I was super lucky. First of all, no My Greatest Fans(tm) spawns at all. Also, I found entrance to the 3rd level almost immediately when I got to the second level. So I could face Mephisto soon after:
Believe it or not, @O_Bruce , but before I started playing D2 to complete the hardcore playthrough, I never grinded and played just as you do now - without all the shiny stuff. Good luck!
@lefreut Fire is better for Normal, you can respec later.
Bart vs Hell on Hell difficulty. Damn, I'm so funny
For starters, stats and skills:
Aldur's Rhythm's with the new jewel
Fight with Izual.
The skill points went into Double Swing
In the River of Flames Bart found a devil star and decided to imbule it at Charsi's. The effect is this:
This picture depict the epicness of battle against Hephasto, who rolled spectral hit, aura enchanted (holy shock) and extra strong. As a result, Hephasto dealt about 500 damage per hit, and he was rather accurate with his strikes. I had to kite him a lot.
All for a Lum rune. But that's actually good, since if I manage to find some good armor with 2 slots, then I can make Smoke runeword.
I am surprised that I haven't made any screen captures from clearing up the Chaos Sanctuary... In general, getting through act IV took me surprisingly long time due to Groteque that are spawning its young. It slowed Bart down considerably. But even without those, Chaos Sanctuary was like hour of playthrough, maybe more.
As for seal guardians, only Vizer of Chaos was relatively easy to beat. Lord de Seis by himself isn't that much of a deal, but his minions were hitting hard. And about Infector of Souls, he's always a challenge.
Diablo himself however, was dealt with quite smoothly in comparison:
Just for you to know, Julius, I really need that "good luck".
I guess that the Demon Lord's most devastating attack is weak loot (but Diablo's firestorm was also badass).
I was bloody relieved when Bart entered Bloody Foothills, since the main mix of monsters that I've encountered there were Death Maulers (the spiky tentacle bois) and Imps, both were much easier to deal with than what Act IV had to offer. And so eventually, Bart reached Shenk the overseer.
After that is done, I've decided to do certain gear change and see how it goes. I don't think I mentioned this but I held on Angel's set ring and amulet. This combo results in huge boost to attack rating (that still increases with your character's level), but to use it I needed to sacrifice my all res amulet and one of the rings. I wanted to test it out, how the combo would work.
And let me tell you this. I may lost 16% of my resistances and little more of lightning and poison resistance. But... The attack rating from using Frenzy skyrocketed from about 2400 to over 6000! That meant my average chance to hit a monster increased from 55% to about 78%. turns out, it was huge damage boost overall and I went with it. Of course, I had to be more careful with opponents like skeletal mages and such, but I had not encountered anything too nasty before entering ice caverns for the first time.
But before I describe that, take a look at that:
Unfortunately, my merc has something better and I don't even know if -50% target defense apply for mercenaries. I know that affixes like "preventing monsters from healing" does not.
So I started my search for Anya and the mix of monsters I got was Succubi (the blood start throwing ones), skeletal mages and... physical-immune ghost. But overall, I made a slow but surely progress and located every important landmark - waypoint, passage to the Gracial Trail and to the Frozen River. Also, I need to thank for wishing me luck, because I found this:
You expected some unique item? Nope! But this Cruel Falcata was a huge damage boost and I switched it with Aldur's Rhythm. Despite how it seems like, it really was worth it. Also, when I still was using Aldur's Rhythm, there was a problem with Berserk skill.
Namely, I could either attack with that skill using weak Aldur's Rhythm or more powerful Passion. The first resulted in weaker damage, the second was more devastating, but it also had chances for monsters to run away, which was impractical against some physical immunities, like ghosts. Now, I can use Falcata for that and results are much better.
Okay, then I went down to the Frozen River and the first thing I encountered were wendigo boss pack. It was dealt with swiftly, and so chad Bart kept strolling. Sirens? Annoying, sure, but manageable. Then Bart saw a lightning shooting from far away, and realized two things. First of all, Gloams were preparing the lube already. Second, he really needed to go back to town ands swap +9% all resist ring for +24% lightning resist ring.
With a mix of Gloams and Sirens, the progress to save Anya was a freaking chore. It took me making a baby steps to prevent too many monsters to target me, it took kiting Gloams and other enemies and it was very dangerous, difficult and frustrating. But I still managed to free Anya, got +10% to all resistances and reward from the younger girl. Unfortunately, the reward is not worth mentioning since I wear helmet from the Immortal King's set.
The last thing I did in this gaming session was locating important landmarks in the Gracial Trail. Waypoint and exit to the Frozen Tundra... and here is where I need to thank you all for witshing me good luck, since I found a socketed Wyrmhide (over 400 base defense) with 2 sockets. Hello, Smoke!
Okay, so not only my defense is still great, I have more fhr now, charges of Weaken (which are useful) and most important of all, +50% to all resistances. Meaning not only that the drawbacks from using my Angel's set combo are not an issue anymore, but also when buffed with shouts, Bart have all resistances maxed out. Brilliant development!
Despite all this, I won't be celebrating until I'm done with this act, one way or another. For now I managed to catch up to Wawrzyniec, but I absolutely cannot allow myself for my effort to go to waste. I need to say sharp.
Also, I have no idea if I will be making and update this week or not. I need a little bit rest, since my stroll through the Frozen River was much more stressful than I anticipated.
Sorry, no update from me this time around, simply because I haven't played since my last session.
But, I've found a news on one Polish gaming-related site... Apparently, initially Diablo IV was in production since 2014 and it was more like... Dark Souls kind of game, with TTP perspective and much more darker atmosphere than Diablo III. Apparently, this project was lead by Josh Mosqueira, the one behind Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo III. The project was scrapped, and Mosqueira left Blizzard.
More up to date Diablo IV project is supposed to bring isometric view back, while still being darker and less stylized than Diablo III (which is good).
Unfortunately, the one source that the article states is Kotaku, which I don't consider reliable. But it is truth that Josh left Blizzard and that might be the potential reason.
I still hope for a good Diablo IV but with all the changes at Blizzard (Mike Morhaime leaving and with Activision influence) I don't know what to expect
Sol rune after a few countess runs \o/ Now Bengoshi needs to find a nice two sockets helm but so far he was unlucky.
Now that Bengoshi uses a one hand weapon, he needs a shield. So he decides to use the Ancient's Pledge runeword (the shield is mediocre but I got tired of trying to find a better one and anyway I should be able to redo the runeword if needed).
First thing, I decided to add socket to the Cruel Falcata... with magic items, Larzuk has 50% chance to add 2 sockets instead of just one. Here's what I got:
Can't complain
Then I made Bart went for Nihlathak. I can't really say what was the deal with Pindleskin, since I took a strategic position to deal with as many risen corspes as I could, together with my merc. What I know that the charge attack hurt a lot.
Halls of Pain had a difficult mix of monsters, mainly Grotesuqe, which spawns its young, Zealots and Kantors, the latter which were fond of healing any other creature. Luckily, Bart managed to find the 3rd level pretty soon. What spawned were Temple Guardians, archers and Succubi variant, the first and the lattest being physically immune. It was however only the matter of time until Bart found and dealt with the traitor (but first, luring away every monster from him so that the corpse explosion would be useless)
For the trouble, Bart was rewarded with the personalization:
I don't remember ever personalizing magical item. First time for everything, eh?
On the way to face the Ancients, Bart found the following:
If I had any points to spare, it could be really worth using due to 33% chance of casting amplify damage. Alas, I could not use it.
Now, facing the Ancients...
Alright, first of all I dropped a lot of potions on the ground. Second, I pre-buffed with shouts. And then... I started rolling the Ancients, until I got something I could deal with. Talic and Madawc spawned with Holy Freeze aura, which was actually not bad. The important thing was, there was no extra strong opponent, no might/fanaticism/conviction aura and no cursed affix. As you can see, the Weaken charges from the Smoke runewrord proved to be useful in this battle. Bart won and earned abour 40 milion experience points, if I recall correctly.
Now, the last quest was right before me... Though honestly, it was only today but I cannot recall what was the monster mix on the first level of the Worldstone Keep. The second level, however did not spawn Burning Souls, which was good. Instead, I had to face Claw Vipers, Mummies and Scarabs. Honestly, that's much more forgiving mix than Burning Souls by themselves.
The third level spawned act IV monsters - stranglers and Doom/Oblivion Knights, the latter required to be cautious about, and my mercenary learned it the hard way. The progress was longer in there, but Bart managed to find the entrance to the Throne of Destruction and I prayed to Bul'Katos I could have a decent mix of monsters.
Fortunately, my prayers were heard, since I did not get mix of My Biggest Fans, Burning Souls and Ancient Horadrims. I got Ancient Horadrims, but they had no undead allies to rise - there were Heretics (4-handed bois). I did not find out the 3rd monster variant however, since soon I was facing Baal's minions.
The first wave was a joke. But second... oh boy, it was painful.
As you can see, Achmel has aura enchanted, which was Holy Freeze. This, together with skeletal mages casting ice bolt and Baal's curse made me and my merc extremely slow. I was actually afraid I wouldn't be able to deal with Achmel and his minions... But fortunately, the skeletal mages were quite willing to follow me and my merc and so I used it to kite them and eliminate them one by one. Then, I could actually manage to lure Achmel and the rest of the Horadrim away from Baal for a bit, so that I could take care of them without worrying about Baal's curse. It was tough, but I managed to slay the damn thing.
Fortunately, the latter waves of minions were much less of a threat, especially since I made Bart use kiting tactics. The game is never fair by me, so I didn't want to be fair by it either. I was so close of reaching my goal and I was not going to fail!
Ventar had Stone Skin, so using Berserk on it was a valid option. I am glad I decided to kite the waves. Even fighting both Lister and only 1 minion at once was difficult. I am sure than had I fought "fair" I would die very quickly. Even then, Lister gave me some trouble.
This is it. The last obstacle in form of the Lord of Destrucion himself.
Baal is going to be Baal, regardless of difficulty. Meaning he will be less dangerous than Lister and co. Still, this fight was long, even with Bart double wielding Strength runeword in weapons, 25% chance of crushing blow each. There were a moments in which Baal summoned his clone, to which I made Bart to use trick of his own: to teleport back to town, use waypoint to travel to other act and back, then go back to the Worldstone Chamber. The clone dissapears then. Aside from that, Baal didn't pose much of a threat...
And here it is!
I freaking did it. I finally beat Diablo II hell difficulty with hardcore character! Not only that, there are few bonuses to this as well! I did so without grinding, so in a playstyle that I orginially started to play Diablo II... Not only that, I did so with a Frenzy Barbarian, which was also the first Barbarian I ever tried. My feels were real
Comments
The loot is worthless ofc
The Claw Vipers temple was one of the most challenging areas Bart visited so far. And note, Bart does not grind, as in he doesn't visit the same areas more than once. The barbarian had to use strategic retreat quite often, but all in all, he reached level 2 and faced Fangskin.
NOPE. Lightning enchanted adds lightning damage based on % of monster's meele damage. Extra strong means more damage. Convinction aura means Bart's ligtning resistance is not existent. All of that equal ultimate ass kicking. Hence Bart destroyed the altar and grabbed the amulet without facing the claw viper.
Reward for his efforts: no harem girls nearby.
Bart's unbuffed stats and changes in skills and equipment:
If you are wondering why there is throw mastery:
The spears are for those tiny nuclear bombs in Act III (and sometimes act V).
Changes in equipment:
Traded life and defense for faster hit recovery and lightning resistance. I think it might be worth it, as the lightning attacks can be most devastating.
Second weapon slots for boss-killing:
Nya.
D2 LoD 1.14D: Act1 Normal
Bengoshi goal is to become a Wind Druid like its great predecessor Yahiko. But as the wind skills unlock late, he will start by using fire skills and then respec when he hits level 18.
First fight against an unique monster.
Bengoshi goes to rescue Deckard Cain and gets a nice shield as a reward.
Bengoshi finds a book that leads to an ancient tower. The Countess gives some good runes drop.
The fight against the Smith goes nicely. He has lot of HP but Molten Boulder is insane at low level. It literally destroys everyone.
D2 LoD 1.14D: Act1 Normal part2
I don't have a lot of screenshots this time as I was too lazy but Bengoshi easily beats AndyArcane Sanctuary and Tal Rasha's tomb were much more of a chore than I anticipated and it was due to physical-immune ghosts. Bart has berserk skill, that is true. However, it comes with drawbacks and without grinding, the damage Bart was doing was still not impressive. They were a pain to deal with if they don't focus on mercenary due to their mana drain. Berserk = 0 defense = getting hit a lot = instant mana drain = using tons of mana potions.
So, clearing up AS took a lot of time, especially since I choose the right direction on my 4th try. And the Tomb of Tal Rasha spawned ghosts, of course, significantly slowing down my progress. But finally:
Time to battle Duriel:
Good news? It took only 1 Full Rejuvation potion and one trip back to town to replenish ordinary health potions. The bad news? The loot.
I felt as if I was struck in the fave with Duriel's claw, to be honest. The charm was +1-2 cold damage, if you were wondering...
D2 LoD 1.14D: Act2 Normal
Bengoshi fights against Radament to get a free skill point.
And then he goes rune hunting with the Countess.
This quest is always annoying with the tiny corridors. But in the end, Bengoshi beats the big evil worm.
Nice back to back drops
Even though he could now switch to Wind, Bengoshi decides to keep using Fire for now, he even craft a wand to help against Duriel.
I'm not sure yet when I'm going to respec to use Wind.
The first problematic thing was The Spider Cavern, Shaark the Burning and its minions in particular. They do a huge amount of damage and are quite resistant, fast-healing and they do run away when injured. This is the time I actually started using the Heart of the Volverine charges from the Passion Runeword, just to earn little bit more attack rating and damage.
The second was Flyer's Dungeons, with my greatest and beloved fans in form of mini nukes aka. Undead Soul Killers. Thankfully, this time around I was able to make them focus on the mercenary. I also noticed that I haven't been doing much with throwing weapons, so Merc did all the job.
Another problem was Ruined Temple, the spiders in particular. Aside from being resistant to damage and all that, they have insanely strong poison that practically forced me to go back to city multiple times.
Meanwhile, Bart bought himself a new armor with ~750 defense. He needed to respec to be able to wear it, though. Also, Bart found a +30% enhanced damage, +7% fhr gem and inserted it in Aldur's Weapon. I forgot about taking the screenshots of the stats and skills, but I'll provide them in the next update.
Travincal wasn't that bad, actually. The only problem was one Council Member spawned with immunity to physical damage, which was bad. It also proritizing attacking me rather than merc, and with Cursed and 0 defense from Berserk, it was not very good encounter.
With Durace of Hate I was super lucky. First of all, no My Greatest Fans(tm) spawns at all. Also, I found entrance to the 3rd level almost immediately when I got to the second level. So I could face Mephisto soon after:
The loot is garbage-tier though.
@lefreut Fire is better for Normal, you can respec later.
Bart vs Hell on Hell difficulty. Damn, I'm so funny
For starters, stats and skills:
Aldur's Rhythm's with the new jewel
Fight with Izual.
The skill points went into Double Swing
In the River of Flames Bart found a devil star and decided to imbule it at Charsi's. The effect is this:
This picture depict the epicness of battle against Hephasto, who rolled spectral hit, aura enchanted (holy shock) and extra strong. As a result, Hephasto dealt about 500 damage per hit, and he was rather accurate with his strikes. I had to kite him a lot.
All for a Lum rune. But that's actually good, since if I manage to find some good armor with 2 slots, then I can make Smoke runeword.
I am surprised that I haven't made any screen captures from clearing up the Chaos Sanctuary... In general, getting through act IV took me surprisingly long time due to Groteque that are spawning its young. It slowed Bart down considerably. But even without those, Chaos Sanctuary was like hour of playthrough, maybe more.
As for seal guardians, only Vizer of Chaos was relatively easy to beat. Lord de Seis by himself isn't that much of a deal, but his minions were hitting hard. And about Infector of Souls, he's always a challenge.
Diablo himself however, was dealt with quite smoothly in comparison:
Just for you to know, Julius, I really need that "good luck".
I guess that the Demon Lord's most devastating attack is weak loot (but Diablo's firestorm was also badass).
D2 LoD 1.14D: Act3 Normal
One day, I will catch the Dark Wanderer
Some drops
It's time to hunt Mephisto.
Bengoshi is victorious \o/ He will have to level up a little to gain some strength to be able to use the drops.
D2 LoD 1.14D: Act4 Normal
Bengoshi does good damage so the fight against Izual was not as long as usual.
Yet another insane rune drop from the Hell's forge
The game decides to redeem itself quickly after that.
It's time to avenge Ajantis !
Diablo can really do a lot of range damage so Bengoshi has to be very careful.
I was bloody relieved when Bart entered Bloody Foothills, since the main mix of monsters that I've encountered there were Death Maulers (the spiky tentacle bois) and Imps, both were much easier to deal with than what Act IV had to offer. And so eventually, Bart reached Shenk the overseer.
After that is done, I've decided to do certain gear change and see how it goes. I don't think I mentioned this but I held on Angel's set ring and amulet. This combo results in huge boost to attack rating (that still increases with your character's level), but to use it I needed to sacrifice my all res amulet and one of the rings. I wanted to test it out, how the combo would work.
And let me tell you this. I may lost 16% of my resistances and little more of lightning and poison resistance. But... The attack rating from using Frenzy skyrocketed from about 2400 to over 6000! That meant my average chance to hit a monster increased from 55% to about 78%. turns out, it was huge damage boost overall and I went with it. Of course, I had to be more careful with opponents like skeletal mages and such, but I had not encountered anything too nasty before entering ice caverns for the first time.
But before I describe that, take a look at that:
So I started my search for Anya and the mix of monsters I got was Succubi (the blood start throwing ones), skeletal mages and... physical-immune ghost. But overall, I made a slow but surely progress and located every important landmark - waypoint, passage to the Gracial Trail and to the Frozen River. Also, I need to thank for wishing me luck, because I found this:
Namely, I could either attack with that skill using weak Aldur's Rhythm or more powerful Passion. The first resulted in weaker damage, the second was more devastating, but it also had chances for monsters to run away, which was impractical against some physical immunities, like ghosts. Now, I can use Falcata for that and results are much better.
Okay, then I went down to the Frozen River and the first thing I encountered were wendigo boss pack. It was dealt with swiftly, and so chad Bart kept strolling. Sirens? Annoying, sure, but manageable. Then Bart saw a lightning shooting from far away, and realized two things. First of all, Gloams were preparing the lube already. Second, he really needed to go back to town ands swap +9% all resist ring for +24% lightning resist ring.
With a mix of Gloams and Sirens, the progress to save Anya was a freaking chore. It took me making a baby steps to prevent too many monsters to target me, it took kiting Gloams and other enemies and it was very dangerous, difficult and frustrating. But I still managed to free Anya, got +10% to all resistances and reward from the younger girl. Unfortunately, the reward is not worth mentioning since I wear helmet from the Immortal King's set.
The last thing I did in this gaming session was locating important landmarks in the Gracial Trail. Waypoint and exit to the Frozen Tundra... and here is where I need to thank you all for witshing me good luck, since I found a socketed Wyrmhide (over 400 base defense) with 2 sockets. Hello, Smoke!
Despite all this, I won't be celebrating until I'm done with this act, one way or another. For now I managed to catch up to Wawrzyniec, but I absolutely cannot allow myself for my effort to go to waste. I need to say sharp.
Also, I have no idea if I will be making and update this week or not. I need a little bit rest, since my stroll through the Frozen River was much more stressful than I anticipated.
D2 LoD 1.14D: Act5 Normal 1
Druids don't seem to be welcome here
Shenk stands no chance against Bengoshi.
It was a very lucky Nihlathak run
D2 LoD 1.14D: Act5 Normal 2
Time to fight the Ancients. The mercenary can tank them so it was safe.
Baal's Guardians. The last two packs are much more dangerous then the others. Bengoshi had to be very careful.
Uniq gloves \o/
The final battle (I think the game wants me to play Barbarian).
Bengoshi stats after defeating B
haalSorry, no update from me this time around, simply because I haven't played since my last session.
But, I've found a news on one Polish gaming-related site... Apparently, initially Diablo IV was in production since 2014 and it was more like... Dark Souls kind of game, with TTP perspective and much more darker atmosphere than Diablo III. Apparently, this project was lead by Josh Mosqueira, the one behind Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo III. The project was scrapped, and Mosqueira left Blizzard.
More up to date Diablo IV project is supposed to bring isometric view back, while still being darker and less stylized than Diablo III (which is good).
The article is in Polish, and it can be found here:
https://www.gram.pl/news/2018/11/22/pierwsze-projekty-diablo-iv-zakladaly-gre-akcji-tpp-w-stylu-dark-souls.shtml
Unfortunately, the one source that the article states is Kotaku, which I don't consider reliable. But it is truth that Josh left Blizzard and that might be the potential reason.
Any thought on the matter?
Nightmare Act1: Part1
It's now time for Bengoshi to switch from Fire to Wind skills to unleash his full power. Here are his skills distribution after a few level up
Bengoshi tries his new specialization against Blood Raven.
This can be useful in hardcore!
Bengoshi rescued Deckard Cain once again. He is the princess Peach of the Diablo universe.
Some runes during the Countess run.
OH MY GOD
Nightmare Act1: Part2
Sol rune after a few countess runs \o/ Now Bengoshi needs to find a nice two sockets helm but so far he was unlucky.
Now that Bengoshi uses a one hand weapon, he needs a shield. So he decides to use the Ancient's Pledge runeword (the shield is mediocre but I got tired of trying to find a better one and anyway I should be able to redo the runeword if needed).
The fight against Andy
First thing, I decided to add socket to the Cruel Falcata... with magic items, Larzuk has 50% chance to add 2 sockets instead of just one. Here's what I got:
Can't complain
Then I made Bart went for Nihlathak. I can't really say what was the deal with Pindleskin, since I took a strategic position to deal with as many risen corspes as I could, together with my merc. What I know that the charge attack hurt a lot.
Halls of Pain had a difficult mix of monsters, mainly Grotesuqe, which spawns its young, Zealots and Kantors, the latter which were fond of healing any other creature. Luckily, Bart managed to find the 3rd level pretty soon. What spawned were Temple Guardians, archers and Succubi variant, the first and the lattest being physically immune. It was however only the matter of time until Bart found and dealt with the traitor (but first, luring away every monster from him so that the corpse explosion would be useless)
For the trouble, Bart was rewarded with the personalization:
On the way to face the Ancients, Bart found the following:
Now, facing the Ancients...
Alright, first of all I dropped a lot of potions on the ground. Second, I pre-buffed with shouts. And then... I started rolling the Ancients, until I got something I could deal with. Talic and Madawc spawned with Holy Freeze aura, which was actually not bad. The important thing was, there was no extra strong opponent, no might/fanaticism/conviction aura and no cursed affix.
As you can see, the Weaken charges from the Smoke runewrord proved to be useful in this battle. Bart won and earned abour 40 milion experience points, if I recall correctly.
Now, the last quest was right before me... Though honestly, it was only today but I cannot recall what was the monster mix on the first level of the Worldstone Keep. The second level, however did not spawn Burning Souls, which was good. Instead, I had to face Claw Vipers, Mummies and Scarabs. Honestly, that's much more forgiving mix than Burning Souls by themselves.
The third level spawned act IV monsters - stranglers and Doom/Oblivion Knights, the latter required to be cautious about, and my mercenary learned it the hard way. The progress was longer in there, but Bart managed to find the entrance to the Throne of Destruction and I prayed to Bul'Katos I could have a decent mix of monsters.
Fortunately, my prayers were heard, since I did not get mix of My Biggest Fans, Burning Souls and Ancient Horadrims. I got Ancient Horadrims, but they had no undead allies to rise - there were Heretics (4-handed bois). I did not find out the 3rd monster variant however, since soon I was facing Baal's minions.
The first wave was a joke. But second... oh boy, it was painful.
As you can see, Achmel has aura enchanted, which was Holy Freeze. This, together with skeletal mages casting ice bolt and Baal's curse made me and my merc extremely slow. I was actually afraid I wouldn't be able to deal with Achmel and his minions... But fortunately, the skeletal mages were quite willing to follow me and my merc and so I used it to kite them and eliminate them one by one. Then, I could actually manage to lure Achmel and the rest of the Horadrim away from Baal for a bit, so that I could take care of them without worrying about Baal's curse. It was tough, but I managed to slay the damn thing.
Fortunately, the latter waves of minions were much less of a threat, especially since I made Bart use kiting tactics. The game is never fair by me, so I didn't want to be fair by it either. I was so close of reaching my goal and I was not going to fail!
Ventar had Stone Skin, so using Berserk on it was a valid option.
I am glad I decided to kite the waves. Even fighting both Lister and only 1 minion at once was difficult. I am sure than had I fought "fair" I would die very quickly. Even then, Lister gave me some trouble.
This is it. The last obstacle in form of the Lord of Destrucion himself.
Baal is going to be Baal, regardless of difficulty. Meaning he will be less dangerous than Lister and co. Still, this fight was long, even with Bart double wielding Strength runeword in weapons, 25% chance of crushing blow each. There were a moments in which Baal summoned his clone, to which I made Bart to use trick of his own: to teleport back to town, use waypoint to travel to other act and back, then go back to the Worldstone Chamber. The clone dissapears then. Aside from that, Baal didn't pose much of a threat...
And here it is!
I freaking did it. I finally beat Diablo II hell difficulty with hardcore character! Not only that, there are few bonuses to this as well! I did so without grinding, so in a playstyle that I orginially started to play Diablo II... Not only that, I did so with a Frenzy Barbarian, which was also the first Barbarian I ever tried. My feels were real
The second Guardian, Bart is now here.
Lastly, here's Bart's buffed stats and Skills:
Bart's epic items
Durga's epic itmes:
This was... a trip.
Hexxat welcomes Bart among the Guardians!