@O_Bruce completed the Hardcore barbarian run in this thread without farming. Recently, he has completed the Hardcore sorceress run (the videos are on his Twitch) farming a bit.
With Hexxat, I usually ran about ~15 times for each boss. With Yahiko the druid, probably the same. In the Hell difficulty, I'd farm till getting the items I aim for.
With Cabrina, I'm getting fun farming probably for 2-3 hours each boss.
But it's hard to say definitely - it depends on what runes you have, what you're aiming for, what you want to upgrade, etc. I constantly have in mind some milestones I'm trying to achieve - eg. I usually don't face Diablo on Normal till ~lvl 29, or don't start Nightmare till ~lvl 40. It's not only about items - it's also about stats.
Or, for example, when I wanted to upgrade my Goblin Toes, I needed high STR. That required levels. Now I want to upgrade them even further, to the elite version, which requires more STR and a rune I still don't have. So I'll farm this rune from the Hell Countess - if I don't get the rune earlier. And I'll farm the Lvl 85 areas till getting good gear.
In the end, @lroumen , it comes down to the balance between how safe you're feeling as your character and some fun from having unique items and sets (I surely like hoarding them).
Back in the day, I never did farming in D2. And I always failed at hardcore runs. The gear really opens up possibilities.
That makes sense. I need to set some goals for myself then, plan some gear for nightmare and he'll if possible.
I know normal is easy enough if I am careful and take care of resists along the way. I also started to stream twitch no voice-over just to force myself the habit of it. I want to get in the groove to start streaming Baldur's Gate in the future.
I saved all the videos, so I'll post some pics when it sort them out.
Btw, thankfully I run plugy on 1.13, I would not be able to play without skill reallocation in hell and even in normal I have already done a bit of switching (teleported yes/no).
On a side note, at least in the Cabrina run, I found MORE useful items not as the boss drops but actually as random unique drops from other monsters on the way to bosses. For example, 2 of 3 items on my companion were found just from ordinary enemies (the ancient armour which I then socketed, the pike which I upgraded). 2 unique amulets, 1 unique ring, the MF unique gloves, the MF arbalest, my unique trellised armor - I found all of them just from random drops. And I find this aspect the most appealing.
Of course, Diablo on Normal dropped the Goblin Toe for Cabrina, and Rattlecage for Hexxat. And JUST now a random monster in the Worldstone Keep (Nightmare) dropped Skin of the Vipermagi - a serpentskin armor which provides +1 to all skills, 31 to all resistances, and 30% Faster Cast Rate. The same armor became @O_Bruce 's ultimate armor for his sorceress.
Normal is easy if you know what you do, but I'm always a bit afraid of Diablo there. Looking forward to your Twitch links / screenshots.
Now I'm trying to find items which will help me on the Hell difficulty. So far, Cabrina hasn't been very successful, but at least the main problem - of both physical immune and lightning immune monsters - is solved because of this rare weapon (that's the "untwinked" character for ya, when a rare item is used).
The difficulty increase once you reach the Hell is striking. I had to change the weapon on my companion and upgrade it.
When I thought about running a new kicksin earlier this year, I had in my mind that Hexxat had been extremely lucky with items. I wanted to see how a kicksin without such great items can fare.
On the Hell difficulty, I immediately felt unsafe. Long and numerous attempts to farm the Pit, the Masoleum, even the Countess - haven't brought anything substantial yet.
You can see how harder Andrariel was if compared to anything Cabrina had faced earlier.
Yet, with more levels, I gradually started to feel safer. Still without great new items, but more secure. Cabrina right now is of the 80th level, just cleared the Viper temple in Act II. She's still trying to get maybe at least one fortunate rune drop (even Yahiko the druid had a ko-ko-mal shield at this stage).
Some drops so far (Cabrina also now has normal Hyperion, Monarh and Troll Nest shields, a Hellforge plate and a 3-socketed Balrog's skin. If only she actually got some decent rune drops (so far, she's found only one Ko rune, and that was back on Nightmare)):
I recorded the fight against the Travincal Council because I wanted to show how the kicksin feels in-game, not against the boss, but in general. That's a good illustration of what to expect from the build on the Hell difficulty and shows how relatively safe the build is.
For people having trouble with PlugY, there is a list of patches on the bottom of that website that are downloadable. I'd recommend downgrading to 1.13c, as it works the best with PlugY, and as far as I can tell 1.13d did nothing of importance. Easier still is to use your CDs if you have them, which should be 1.12, and then you can just patch it up to 1.13c.
As I've mentioned before, the lack of stash space in the original game is infinitesimally small (and believe it or not it was even smaller before Lord of Destruction). This was likely done to encourage trading, but those days are long gone, and the most appealing thing about the game for me at this point is item collection of Uniques and Sets. PlugY is basically essential. Mule programs are fine, but tedious in the extreme. Plus they don't work with Realm characters, and without playing on the ladder, a dozen runewords and Uber events aren't available. PlugY solves all of this with some ini tweaks.
As I said, for some reason 1.13c didn't work correctly on my setup (it constantly crashed and the colours were off). So the compatibility with modern systems from 1.14d was key for me. 1.13c worked absolutely alright on my previous PC, though.
Back when I played Hexxat, I wrote in this thread that I agreed with @CrevsDaak the game should be played as the designers envisioned, which meant no PlugY. But since I already beat the game without PlugY (and thus without all that wealth of unlimited space) I figured I could use it. I got so used to hoarding that I couldn't imagine myself without it anymore. Then the problem with the game happened. Then I found the GoMule app which provided a much-needed solution.
I really think those extra items don't provide any meaningful effect on the game's difficulty and serve more to please the player who doesn't want to farm endlessly or just likes to hoard sets and uniques.
One factor that supports hoarding items is that on Battle.net people usually played with one character to actually find items for their other characters. And only after finding good items they started to build their new characters. Since it's impossible in Single Player without using either PlugY or GoMule, I think these solutions are totally justified. Yeah, this is how I changed my opinion over the years in the same thread.
Anyway, back to business.
Cabrina has been VERY unlucky with runes in this run. But what goes around, comes around. Just look at this juicy Lem drop from the Hell Forge!
Only 1 in 11 chance, and only one attempt. Hooray! Finally, the boots could be upgraded to the Elite version - and the boots are the major factor affecting Cabrina's damage. This is one main item for the whole build.
381-577 damage skyrocketed to 441-942. Hexxat didn't have Elite boots, btw.
Back in Act III, I got an idea to create and equip the Lionheart armour onto my companion. I have to admit - that was one of the best decisions on the Hell difficulty. Once his resistances became 75 each, my companion stopped dying too often and thus started helping much, much more, especially since his attacks provide the whole set of disablers: Freeze / Blind / Flee / Slow.
45 seconds. This is how long Diablo lasted. I didn't even spend a potion there.
The Scourge Diablo dropped was Horizon's Tornado. Between this awesome flail, the weapon from the Immortal King set, and 2 items from the Natalya's Odium set, - I have to decide what my next character should be.
I agree generally that the inventory as is is how the game was intended to be played. The problem is what you have to do to move gear around if you play on Ladder or the Realms (which is the only true way to get the full experience, as even the PlugY ubers are missing Battlenet scripting and are simply versions of the regular bosses fought together). The process is beyond tedium. You have to make a private game. Make sure you are in it for at least 5 minutes. Drop your items on the ground. Log out, wait one minute so you don't get banned for being a suspected bot. Log into the game that HOPEFULLY saved on your other character (otherwise your items are gone) and pick them up on the other one. Rinse and repeat, at least until you run out of character slots, in which case plop down $20 for another license. The way items have to be shuffled if playing online is absurdity.
It's why every game in the genre added bigger stashes and shared stashes going forward. Because it was THAT bad. I understand limitations, but the inventory and stash space in Diablo II is almost comical, and I say that even with it being one of my top-5 favorite games ever. Before GoMule, there was a program called ATMA, and it still works, and will serve perfectly fine even for 1.14d characters as long as they are single-player. In fact, I would recommend it over GoMule.
There actually IS a way to get ladder-only runewords to work in single-player in 1.14d, and it simply involves getting a Google document, putting it in the correct folders, and creating a shortcut and typing something in the command line. All that leaves out in the Ubers and the Annihilus Charm and Hellfire Torch, which are arguably overpowered anyway. Along with ATMA, it pretty much provides the core experience without PlugY and all the convenience of the latest patch:
The game is very entertaining but it is just soo imbalanced it's beyond stupid.
Gems and most runes have very little use.
Most runes are only in 1-2 words or it takes forever to use it in a word considering the level at which the rune drops. I am sitting on 40 or so runes and I made 1 word with them. Only now at level 40 I want to start using them more so I guess I need to decide.
The additions of synergies made less builds useful. Now you need to dedicate. If only synergies were a bit more balanced and fun then I could use more than just 2-3 different skills throughout the game. Plugy at least allows skill redistribution...
I never found a mod that just rebalanced runes, runewords and synergies. Usually they focus on changing everything into whatever the mod creator fancies.
Not sure I'd agree with that. Rhyme and Strength runewords have been on Cabrina since early Nightmare - and they still are, eng-game. She has Lore in her helmet, and now the mercenary has Lionheart in his armor.
Runewords provide really powerful effects, but the game can be played without them, - you get uniques, you get ways to upgrade them.
"Imbalanced" is the word I'd use the least towards Diablo 2. Maybe it's just the way I've got used to. How many more skills would you like? Cabrina uses a kick by default (on the left) and constantly switches between Cloak of Shadows, Mind Blast and Death Sentry. She also casts Venom, Fade and Shadow Master. That's 7 skills. Plus Life Tap from the wand, and then there is the Town Portal.
Those are mostly already mid range words though. I have not found anything above Sol yet, at level 50ish. Indeed I always go to a similar selection because the class and mercenary determines which ones are useful.
I would like more early game words that are applicable to more classes. Words in which I can use more Eld, Nef, Eth, Ith or something. There are not enough of them.
For skill balance, maybe some builds do not lend to much variety, but often if you invest in synergies then you build up to 2-3 skills at best. Some classes just don't have enough utility and then almost requiring dedication to one skill tree makes everything so... Linear?
Black Souls in the Worldstone Keep proved to be the hardest enemies for Cabrina in the whole run. I had to be extra careful there.
And in the Throne of Destruction, it didn't become much easier. The combination of Oblivion Knights + Dark Lords + Death Lords was scary. And I couldn't just reload the game to try and get other enemies - that would have meant going through the Black Souls again.
Ah, my inferno meteor sorceress died due to an unresponsive portal at andariel nightmare. I forgot to load up on a few antidotes and when I clicked the portal it simply fizzled a dew times and she caught up to me and I dropped dead. Stupid and careless but that happens. It was fun while it lasted. I got through normal hardcore which was my main goal.
I should work on my focus a bit more but I feel confident again to continue my bg noreload run again. At least I got a good run of about 10 hours. Maybe I'll do another one as summoned druid with thorns merc or such. I ought to post pics next time too with a bit of a story on how I fare.
That's unfortunate. It takes a lot of effort to do a hardcore run, I couldn't accomplish it in nearly ~15 years of playing. Looking forward to what comes next from you.
Turns out the game shouldn't end after you become a Guardian. Actually, it's probably when the fun for item seekers starts: the same fun that was possible on Nightmare but then stopped being relatively safe on Hell (due to the fact you couldn't let yourself any decrease of protections). Cabrina equipped back the socketed ancient armour and with a 198% MF overall chance started to search for the missing 2 items of the Natalya's Odium assassin set, the one I'd like to test on another assassin who would specialize in elemental attacks and dual-wielding claws.
In less than 2 hours, she found: a Pul rune (provided an upgrade of the Ilzan's weapon to the Elite version) and the Blade of Ali Baba - a unique tulwar providing 1-99 MF chance (based on the character's level) with 2 sockets), a normal lacquered plate and 2 pieces from the Milabrega's Regalia.
There are about 5 or 6 places that tend to be run to death in magic-finding at high levels. They are all level 85 areas (can drop any item in the game) and one boss that can't drop everything, but is so easy to access assuming you skip one Waypoint that it is still worth it. Basically it boils down to:
1.) The Pit in Act 1
2.) The Countess (for runes)
2.) Durance of Hate and Mephisto
3.) Chaos Sanctuary and Diablo
4.) Worldstone Keep and Baal
5.) Pindleskin
6.) Opening containers in Lower Kurast to hunt for high runes
The Pit is, easily, the most efficient, because it is a relatively simple Act 1 area with Act 1 monsters, who simply aren't as dangerous as what you'd see in the areas in Act III, IV, and V. It's also easily accessible, simply by using the first Monastery waypoint and venturing out into the Tamoe Highlands. On PlugY or Singleplayer, the maps only reset when the difficulty level changes, so once you find it once, it's always in the same spot (but the monsters are not the same).
I decided to take a break from playing the BG series, so I'm filling that with D2 instead. After my previous HC necromancer fell in act 5 Hell, I started up a new assassin. Well, I resumed her quest - normal difficulty complete.
Following the same naming theme as the deceased Prebek, this is Danys. She will focus on traps, after just hitting things in the early game. She also gets to use items that Prebek picked up, so she'll be well-equipped to start with. Single-pass full clears at players 8, at least until I start lowering the players count around nightmare act 5. Ladder runewords are enabled with a small mod, and I use GoMule to transfer items.
Early on, the best weapon is Khalim's Will. Very fast, good elemental damage, and no requirements whatsoever. You can bash your way through act 1 with no help from skills if you need to. Of course, I also give her some other things, like a 3-part Angelic set package. Only one of the rings, because I don't have a second in HC yet. Lots of Cathan's Seal, only one Angelic Halo.
Danys does pull out the traps for the act's final battle, hitting Andariel with Wake of Fire traps from long range. Both mercenary and shadow go down, but Danys pulls through.
There's not much else of note in act 1, although I did spot a random Wraith boss named "Bone Growler the Wraith". Nice to see the random name lining up for once.
In act 2, she switches to a Prayer mercenary Haseen. And here, I add something new to my playstyle: extensive use of Cloak of Shadows. Blinding all nearby non-boss enemies ... it's amazing crowd control. If they're not right there in melee with you, they just stand around doing nothing. No ranged attacks. No raising those skeletons you just killed. Nothing.
Late in the act, Danys reaches level 27, and Haseen gets an ethereal Insight partizan. He'll be using that for a long time, and that lets Danys become more caster than anything else.
Duriel? A lot of running, a lot of lightning sentry traps, and a dead shadow. No problem.
The most notable item found - ethereal Gorefoot heavy boots in the Dry Hills.
In act 3, I go even farther in the caster direction - a Spirit sword and Sigon's Guard. More than doubling her mana pool makes a huge difference. The silly random level design strikes in the jungle:
And of course, the Flayer Jungle is on the other side of things, not connected to the Great Marsh at all. The only reason to enter the Great Marsh on this map is for the loot and XP.
Level 30 comes, and Danys gets another infusion of gear - Skin of the Vipermagi, a rare +2 traps amulet, and Bonesnap on switch for Blade Fury purposes. That amulet is the only piece of gear she's using with specific assassin bonuses.
Battles are routine now, including the boss:
No drops of any real note, just the game practically insulting me with two Isenhart's Cases in a single session (the second from Mephisto).
The uniques start flowing in act 4, including another ethereal one (Griswold's Edge). The Hellforge gives an Amn, and then she faces Diablo. Since she resists him well and has the MDR from her armor, it's an easy fight.
Two uniques in that boss drop: The Tannr Gorerod and Venom Grip.
On to act 5. Start at level 35, rapidly gain from there. Lightning Sentry maxed out, so she starts working on Death Sentry. Nihlathak gets lots of Death Sentries, to make sure no corpse stays unexploded. The Ancients:
Still at players 8 for that. Then Baal:
Coif of Glory and Cleglaw's Tooth from the boss. Nothing really special drop-wise.
After that, it's one last short session to slaughter some cows. They die very fast, since they're considerably lower-level than the act 5 content. A Baal run after that, and Danys leaves normal difficulty at level 50.
All right, here's the second update - Nightmare difficulty.
Act 1 is pretty easy, because Danys outlevels the monsters by so much. They start out in the mid-30s and she's level 50 already when starting. There's only one troublesome fight I note - a double boss pack of lightning-resistant Tainted in the catacombs.
Andariel gets Lightning Sentries and Fire Blasts - despite my low level in the latter, her vulnerability makes it worthwhile. She has an easy time killing off the shadows, and spends a lot of time chasing Danys.
There. She even drops multiple unique and set items - Plague Bearer, Isenhart's Lightbrand, and Sander's Riprap.
In act 2, a lightning enchanted Radament kills Haseen, and takes a while to put down. After another mercenary death, I trade him in for a new Holy Freeze mercenary Zanarhi. Then, mid-act, I update Danys' gear - she wields Prebek's Heart of the Oak flail now. Or, as it's shown in game, "Heart of the Oak Prebek's Flail". Also a +2 traps coronet with no other bonuses, and some mana charms. She has less MF now, with only one Nagelring and Chance Guards, but I'm fine with that. It doesn't seem to hurt, either - I find Wizendraw and Riphook in quick succession.
At level 58, in the Canyon of the Magi, I max out Death Sentry. Fire Blast comes next, for both the Death Sentry synergy and use in its own right. I still use Lightning Sentry most of the time (more lightning damage), but some fights call for Death Sentry instead. You can't hide corpses from a boss Unraveler like Ancient Kaa by blinding him. Incidentally, I always do the false tombs in these full-clear runs - I picked up Steelclash this time from that.
The Duriel fight ... basically, he chased after Danys unless she had a shadow out, and those didn't last very long. They did last long enough to lay new sets of traps, at least. One healing potion used, when she dropped down to about half health.
Duriel dropped a Magefist and nothing else of note.
In act 3, level 60 and the Jade Figurine come from the same monster very early on. The Great Marsh is optional again, but I go there anyway to test myself against the Gloams. They're not too bad with 75 lightning resist and a bunch of MDR. Then the expedition rewards me - Natalya's Totem drops from a random frog boss. Perfect 20 on the resistances, too.
Later on - a +1 traps charm in the Kurast sewers. Excellent. Lots of dolls in the Durance, so I use Cloak of Shadows a lot. Their explosions are very dangerous, and that helps keep them at a distance.
For Mephisto, I start fighting him up close, but later move to the moat position:
He drops The Battlebranch and nothing else of note.
In act 4, Izual drops a unique - Rattlecage. That's even worth using, as the 25% crushing blow is good on the mercenary. With the quest reward, Death Sentry now has 10 shots and Fire Blast is starting to do pretty good damage.
The Hellforge drops a mere Dol.
For Diablo, I drop the players count to 5; that will be my standard for act 5 as well.
Nothing too special about the fight itself. He drops two set items - Angelic Sickle and M'avina's Tenet.
Act 5 starts off well, with an Ist rune from a random slinger in the Bloody Foothills. I go after Nihlathak even before finishing the Crystalline Passage - Cloak of Shadows does a very good job of making those undead outside less scary. If they can't see you, they can't charge. Level 70 reached in the Halls of Pain, and Fire Blast is maxed out. There's a relatively free choice after that; I decide to invest in Shadow Master, for better tanking support.
One of the armor stands in the Halls of Vaught drops the unique light belt Snakecord - always check everything. Armor stands and weapon racks are interesting for item finding because they don't use the same treasure class system as other items - class specific items and very low level items are more common from them.
For Nihlathak ... Death Sentries from out of sight. He doesn't last long.
I think he was Cursed, since my mercenary and shadow picked that up. I never hovered over him to verify.
I also start picking up the occasional nonmagical item. An ethereal four-socket Feral Axe looks like a good Oath base for a future shapeshifting druid.
I take on the Ancients at level 71, going down to players 1 for this fight:
The keep goes smoothly. Plenty of Oblivion Knights, but no Gloam types. Baal takes a while and eats through several healing potions.
That picture is a case of lock-on continuing to work even as the enemy wanders farther away. I kept it up for a while, but it couldn't last forever; he came back into the fight and forced me to take other actions. No set or unique items dropped from the boss.
Then one last session for Nightmare - the cow level. One of those big enemy packs ...
A truly rare item - the Cow King's Hide only drops in the Cow Level. With that drop, I now have one each of the set, if I combine my softcore and hardcore stashes.
Then a couple of easily accessed bosses (Eldritch and Pindleskin) and a Baal run. Black Souls in Worldstone 2 - a mix of Cloak of Shadows, Death Sentry, and Fire Blast work well on them. I only take a few hits from those lightning bolts, although of course I'll have to see how that holds up with the higher stats in Hell. Baal again eats through several potions, and adds in a mercenary kill or two this time. His drop includes a Milabrega's Orb.
Danys is now level 74, and ready for Hell difficulty.
And now, the final update for Danys - Hell difficulty.
Now that she's in Hell, Danys goes down to players 1 and switches to Fade instead of Burst of Speed. Maxed resistances are key for survival. The new difficulty greets her with a fire/lightning immune monster in the Blood Moor - thankfully, Zanarhi and the shadow are up to the task of killing it. Fire and lightning immune monsters are plentiful; the Cave comes with three different lightning immune monster types, and only the Fallen camps are vulnerable to the trap bolts.
The Crypt and Mausoleum are guaranteed to be 100% full of lightning immune monsters, but I go there anyway. I get the Buriza-do Kyanon for my trouble, from either the "boss" of the Crypt or one of its minions.
The Countess doesn't drop a single rune, but at least her chest sheds a Tir.
Another good item comes in the Catacombs - Demon Limb, with a near-perfect 229 ED.
Andariel goes down quickly - one set of Death Sentries, supplemented by Fire Blasts.
Her drop - Cathan's Mesh and a bunch of junk.
Act 2 brings a bunch of useful and/or rare items. Goldstrike Arch in the sewers, Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth in the Halls of the Dead (which Danys wears), Lem in the Far Oasis, The Gavel of Pain and Rixot's Keen in the palace cellar
Danys has her first panic moment in one of the false tombs - cornered by apparitions after accidentally closing a door behind her. One full rejuv drunk, and she manages to open the door and escape.
Hell Duriel isn't much harder than the Nightmare version. He focuses on and kills Zanarhi a couple of times, but that's the only real difference.
He drops an Infernal Cranium - pretty rare - and a bunch of junk.
By act 3, the monsters have caught up to Danys - she's level 80, and they're about the same. Another Gavel of Pain drops in the Spider Forest, and another Goldstrike Arch in the Forgotten Temple. The Great Marsh is mandatory this time, and gives a pair of Lem runes. Since that was a rune I didn't have any of in HC before this run, it's a pretty nice reversal of fortune.
Undead Soul Killers in the Swampy Pit and Kurast Sewers, and later Undead Stygian Dolls in Durance 2, are quite troublesome - they have a nasty habit of locking on to Danys, and they move too fast to outrun. Cloak of Shadows is my best bet against them. No really close calls, but I used quite a few healing potions after battles with them.
The really rare item for the act is an ethereal Felloak in Durance 1.
Mephisto is dealt with from a safe distance:
No set or unique items dropped.
In act 4, the very first area brings Venom Lords. Immune to fire, highly resistant to physical and lightning. They take a lot of killing, and some bosses make it even worse.
That one joined with another pack, led by a physical immune. The PI demon died before the LI one. My use of the Blade Fury switch here was the first time I've done so other than against an act boss.
Then the second area adds Burning Souls to the Venom Lords. I get through that without any close calls, at least.
The Hellforge gives us a Gul:
And then another Lem on the river. I'm up to four of them total now.
Diablo is handled by staying at a distance and dodging his spells:
He drops a Griswold's Heart.
Finally, act 5. The last and hardest part, which killed off my previous run. There are lots of ranged attackers, against which we use lots of shadows. In fact, the first two areas don't have any regular melee monsters at all.
I have another panic moment in the Frozen River, when a ranged boss pack deals a lot of damage very quickly. I come back after drinking that fat purple ... and they're all dead already from my traps working. Sirens and Bone Mages aren't exactly sturdy.
Nihlathak comes immediately after that, and the dreaded bugged Tomb Vipers are in the Halls of Vaught. I mostly handle them with mid-range fire blasts under Cloak of Shadows, although corpse explosions help. The one Evil Urn has a Tomb Viper boss pack hidden in it - instant mercenary death, although Danys gets away with minimal damage. Then she whittles them down, and kills the boss after reviving Zanarhi.
Nihlathak himself is no trouble. Deny him corpses, and he's not much of a threat.
He drops a Key of Destruction, useless in single player.
A second +traps charm drops in the Drifter Cavern, so Danys trades it for one of her mana charms.
I finally get that second Angelic Halo in the Ancients' Way - future characters will have a better start.
Against the Ancients, my first try features a fire/lightning immune Talic. I open a portal to reroll that one. The second has only one lightning immune, with predictable results:
This Madawc seems to have an undocumented fire immunity, so I switch to Blade Fury and deal most of the damage that way. It takes a while. The reward takes me halfway from level 83 to 84; since I was at less than half, no new level.
Worldstone 2 has Black Souls. With a cautious approach and lots of Cloak of Shadows, I don't suffer any close calls.
No more trouble on the way to Baal, but this boss is pretty nasty. Zanarhi dies four times during the fight, and I keep bringing him back. Still, we prevail.
He drops a Demon Limb. Danys is a Guardian at level 83 - my first ever.
Finally, a victory tour. Clear out the Cow Level:
The king drops an Aldur's Rhythm, my third of the run. The cows kill Zanarhi a couple times, but I can fight without him here. I just need to drink the occasional mana potion.
After that, the Countess. Ko on the way down, Fal from her.
I round it off with the Pit; no notable drops there.
The run ends here, at level 84. All areas fully cleared, all quests done. Guardian Danys will probalby farm some, but her time in the spotlight is over.
Stats: 150+9 Str, 120+43 Dex, 220 Vit, 25+18 Ene.
Negligible defense (448), 60% block chance.
949 life, 336 mana.
Resistances 44/50/46/37 before +45 all from Fade, 75/75/75/75 after.
Skills: 20 Fire Blast, 20 Lightning Sentry, 20 Death Sentry, 19 Shadow Master. All other trap and shadow skills 1. No martial arts skills. All trap skills get +11, all shadow skills get +5.
Fire Blast deals 1520-1827 fire damage. Lightning Sentry deals 1-2540 lightning damage. Death Sentry deals 1-2108 lightning damage with a 13.3 yard corpse explosion radius.
Items:
Head: Trickster's Coronet - +2 traps.
Neck: Rare amulet "Rune Heart" - +2 traps, +4 min damage, +18 energy, +32 life, +10% all resist, additional +14% fire resist.
Main hand: Prebek's Heart of the Oak flail - +3 all skills, +40% faster cast, +35% all resist, +10 Dex, replenish life +20, +15% maximum mana, and some weapon damage bits that don't matter.
Off hand: Sigon's Guard - +1 all skills, 69% blocking.
Weapon switch: Bonesnap - 104-149 damage, 40% crushing blow, 30% fire and cold resistance.
Torso: Skin of the Vipermagi - +1 all skills, +20% faster cast, +32% all resist, magic damage reduced by 10.
Hands: Chance Guards - +200% gold find, +31% magic find.
Left Finger: Rare ring "Havoc Grip" - +1 Str, +13 Dex, +31 mana, +30% poison resist, +4 max damage, irrelevant attack rating.
Right Finger: Rare Ring "Wraith Whorl" - +9 minimum damage, +2 Str, +23% cold resist, +6% fire resist, +15% magic find.
Waist: Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth - +20 Dex, +30 mana, 37% damage taken goes to mana, +13% magic find.
Feet: Rare Boots "Brimstone Stalker" - +20% faster move, +20% cold resist, +39% lightning resist, +59% gold find.
Inventory: 2x Entrapping Grand Charm (+1 traps each), Serpent's Grand Charm of Strength (+6 strength, +55 mana), Garnet Small Charm of Life (+9% fire resist, +10 life), Garnet Small Charm of Sustenance (+9% fire resist, +12 life), Small Charm of Vita (+19 life).
Danys runs with Fade, Venom, and Blade Shield active. She carries two rarely used columns of rejuvenation potions, one column of healing potions, and one column of mana potions.
Mercenary: Holy Freeze (act 2 Nightmare defensive), equipped with Insight ethereal partizan, ethereal Goldskin, and Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest. Maximum resistances with plenty to spare, 10% life steal, and decent damage. Also slows all enemies and makes Danys never lack for mana.
I could clearly do better, especially in the items. Casting traps and fire blasts actually runs off increased attack speed, and I have nothing other than the flail's innate speed. Also, with only +20% FRW and a heavy shield, she's not very quick on her feet. I put all those points into strength so I could wield a Spirit shield ... and then never found a Monarch to put it in. If I had some more resistances, I could switch to Burst of Speed instead of Fade - another thing that Spirit shield would help with.
Then again, this was a single pass through Hell difficulty, at players 1. It's not surprising she only found a few things to improve on what Prebek had collected.
Still, the core of the character is in the tactics. Hit them from out of sight, whether that's off screen with traps or up closer with fire blasts under Cloak of Shadows. Or hit them while they're engaged with the mercenary and shadow. Blocking and resistances help with the stray attacks that get through, of course.
Late to the party here. I learned from Julius that we have another Guardian here, so I came [here]. Congratulations, @jmerry and thank you for providing some info about your build. Much appreciated.
If we are talking about Guardians, then I have two more:
Decided to try D1 from GOG. I went into it with a lot of concerns as all the sites mention how D2 is a much better game and how D1 is too old for today.
D1 is certainly not for every D2 fan, I agree. But I like what I'm seeing (I remember my father played it when I was young, but I have never really attempted to play it before now):
- Everything in the dungeon is so dark, it's hard to see enemies and thus it's quite scary when they pop up into the line of sight;
- Music is so atmospheric;
- You don't breeze through low levels, almost any enemy can potentially harm you, you have to stay on your guard all the time;
- The first 3 factors combined, this gives a great, old-school feeling of horror, darkness and difficulty. I like it a lot!
- When you find an item, you don't know if it's magical or not. You have to pick it and then identify if it's a magical one. And you can't just buy identify scrolls! It feels so good to find a magical item you really need!
- I first tried to play a Mage but died on the 1st level of dungeon. You know what? You can miss with spells and they cost mana... I figured I should try a rogue for unlimited arrows;
- at first, it was much easier than with a wizard. Pew-pew-pew, next one. But on the 3rd level I already felt it became much harder. Enemies started to come in packs, sometimes with mini-bosses. And then I encountered my first enemy archers;
- The Butcher... I play without spoilers so I didn't know what to expect and once I opened that door... Well, let's just say I had no chance; Time to roll a new char then and start again!
- I noticed Griswold was selling a bow with a knockback effect. I decided this can probably help me a lot;
- But items from Griswold restock in an interesting way; while I was saving money for that bow, it just disappeared from the shop!
- Then I found a magic longbow with a knockback effect! Yay! But it required 25 STR, and I didn't realize bows would require STR. Here it goes! One extra levels, and I put the points into STR.
- Finally, at lvl 10, I equip the knockback longbow. And it's stunningly effective.
- I figure I should try the Butcher this time. The bow made all the difference. The Butcher went down without getting any hit on my rogue.
My rogue just reached lvl 16 and entered area 8. Battles become really difficult now, and if I'm not cautious enough the rogue's health goes to 10% in seconds.
More things that I like:
- Turns out, the game has unique items! From what I saw at first, I thought you should be extremely lucky to get a magical item with an attribute you're interested in. But I found a unique staff now (just in a chest). Looking forward to maybe finding more useful unique items in the future. Unlike D2, this game doesn't let you farm enemies forever (or at all), so items feel a lot more unique when you find them.
- Shrines. They are just very creative with the shrines. How about the one putting gold into every empty slot in the inventory? Or the one that closes all opened chests in the area and puts new loot into them?
- Planning for items becomes even more catching. Wirt had an amulet improving health by 38 points for 21k gold. I didn't have the amount at that time. Griswold had an amulet for sale improving health by 21 points for 8k gold. I had the amount but wanted to get Wirt's one (even while it was more expensive, I just wanted more hitpoints). The end result? While I was searching for gold, both Griswold and Wirt stopped selling these amulets...
- You have to be really careful when your items are damaged. If you don't repair them in time, they will just vanish for good.
- I like how you can use staves as a rogue if your magic skill is enough. So I found a healing staff and use it when I need to heal between battles, instead of using potions (these are helpful during combat). Maybe you can play a fighter/mage. This wasn't obvious at the start.
Comments
With Hexxat, I usually ran about ~15 times for each boss. With Yahiko the druid, probably the same. In the Hell difficulty, I'd farm till getting the items I aim for.
With Cabrina, I'm getting fun farming probably for 2-3 hours each boss.
But it's hard to say definitely - it depends on what runes you have, what you're aiming for, what you want to upgrade, etc. I constantly have in mind some milestones I'm trying to achieve - eg. I usually don't face Diablo on Normal till ~lvl 29, or don't start Nightmare till ~lvl 40. It's not only about items - it's also about stats.
Or, for example, when I wanted to upgrade my Goblin Toes, I needed high STR. That required levels. Now I want to upgrade them even further, to the elite version, which requires more STR and a rune I still don't have. So I'll farm this rune from the Hell Countess - if I don't get the rune earlier. And I'll farm the Lvl 85 areas till getting good gear.
In the end, @lroumen , it comes down to the balance between how safe you're feeling as your character and some fun from having unique items and sets (I surely like hoarding them).
Back in the day, I never did farming in D2. And I always failed at hardcore runs. The gear really opens up possibilities.
I know normal is easy enough if I am careful and take care of resists along the way. I also started to stream twitch no voice-over just to force myself the habit of it. I want to get in the groove to start streaming Baldur's Gate in the future.
I saved all the videos, so I'll post some pics when it sort them out.
Btw, thankfully I run plugy on 1.13, I would not be able to play without skill reallocation in hell and even in normal I have already done a bit of switching (teleported yes/no).
Of course, Diablo on Normal dropped the Goblin Toe for Cabrina, and Rattlecage for Hexxat. And JUST now a random monster in the Worldstone Keep (Nightmare) dropped Skin of the Vipermagi - a serpentskin armor which provides +1 to all skills, 31 to all resistances, and 30% Faster Cast Rate. The same armor became @O_Bruce 's ultimate armor for his sorceress.
Normal is easy if you know what you do, but I'm always a bit afraid of Diablo there. Looking forward to your Twitch links / screenshots.
Diablo:
Baal:
Now I'm trying to find items which will help me on the Hell difficulty. So far, Cabrina hasn't been very successful, but at least the main problem - of both physical immune and lightning immune monsters - is solved because of this rare weapon (that's the "untwinked" character for ya, when a rare item is used).
The difficulty increase once you reach the Hell is striking. I had to change the weapon on my companion and upgrade it.
On the Hell difficulty, I immediately felt unsafe. Long and numerous attempts to farm the Pit, the Masoleum, even the Countess - haven't brought anything substantial yet.
You can see how harder Andrariel was if compared to anything Cabrina had faced earlier.
Yet, with more levels, I gradually started to feel safer. Still without great new items, but more secure. Cabrina right now is of the 80th level, just cleared the Viper temple in Act II. She's still trying to get maybe at least one fortunate rune drop (even Yahiko the druid had a ko-ko-mal shield at this stage).
Some drops so far (Cabrina also now has normal Hyperion, Monarh and Troll Nest shields, a Hellforge plate and a 3-socketed Balrog's skin. If only she actually got some decent rune drops (so far, she's found only one Ko rune, and that was back on Nightmare)):
And a short (25 sec) fight against Mephisto (the rest of the video shows stats / skills / items).
As I've mentioned before, the lack of stash space in the original game is infinitesimally small (and believe it or not it was even smaller before Lord of Destruction). This was likely done to encourage trading, but those days are long gone, and the most appealing thing about the game for me at this point is item collection of Uniques and Sets. PlugY is basically essential. Mule programs are fine, but tedious in the extreme. Plus they don't work with Realm characters, and without playing on the ladder, a dozen runewords and Uber events aren't available. PlugY solves all of this with some ini tweaks.
Back when I played Hexxat, I wrote in this thread that I agreed with @CrevsDaak the game should be played as the designers envisioned, which meant no PlugY. But since I already beat the game without PlugY (and thus without all that wealth of unlimited space) I figured I could use it. I got so used to hoarding that I couldn't imagine myself without it anymore. Then the problem with the game happened. Then I found the GoMule app which provided a much-needed solution.
I really think those extra items don't provide any meaningful effect on the game's difficulty and serve more to please the player who doesn't want to farm endlessly or just likes to hoard sets and uniques.
One factor that supports hoarding items is that on Battle.net people usually played with one character to actually find items for their other characters. And only after finding good items they started to build their new characters. Since it's impossible in Single Player without using either PlugY or GoMule, I think these solutions are totally justified. Yeah, this is how I changed my opinion over the years in the same thread.
Anyway, back to business.
Cabrina has been VERY unlucky with runes in this run. But what goes around, comes around. Just look at this juicy Lem drop from the Hell Forge!
Only 1 in 11 chance, and only one attempt. Hooray! Finally, the boots could be upgraded to the Elite version - and the boots are the major factor affecting Cabrina's damage. This is one main item for the whole build.
381-577 damage skyrocketed to 441-942. Hexxat didn't have Elite boots, btw.
Back in Act III, I got an idea to create and equip the Lionheart armour onto my companion. I have to admit - that was one of the best decisions on the Hell difficulty. Once his resistances became 75 each, my companion stopped dying too often and thus started helping much, much more, especially since his attacks provide the whole set of disablers: Freeze / Blind / Flee / Slow.
45 seconds. This is how long Diablo lasted. I didn't even spend a potion there.
The Scourge Diablo dropped was Horizon's Tornado. Between this awesome flail, the weapon from the Immortal King set, and 2 items from the Natalya's Odium set, - I have to decide what my next character should be.
It's why every game in the genre added bigger stashes and shared stashes going forward. Because it was THAT bad. I understand limitations, but the inventory and stash space in Diablo II is almost comical, and I say that even with it being one of my top-5 favorite games ever. Before GoMule, there was a program called ATMA, and it still works, and will serve perfectly fine even for 1.14d characters as long as they are single-player. In fact, I would recommend it over GoMule.
There actually IS a way to get ladder-only runewords to work in single-player in 1.14d, and it simply involves getting a Google document, putting it in the correct folders, and creating a shortcut and typing something in the command line. All that leaves out in the Ubers and the Annihilus Charm and Hellfire Torch, which are arguably overpowered anyway. Along with ATMA, it pretty much provides the core experience without PlugY and all the convenience of the latest patch:
Gems and most runes have very little use.
Most runes are only in 1-2 words or it takes forever to use it in a word considering the level at which the rune drops. I am sitting on 40 or so runes and I made 1 word with them. Only now at level 40 I want to start using them more so I guess I need to decide.
The additions of synergies made less builds useful. Now you need to dedicate. If only synergies were a bit more balanced and fun then I could use more than just 2-3 different skills throughout the game. Plugy at least allows skill redistribution...
I never found a mod that just rebalanced runes, runewords and synergies. Usually they focus on changing everything into whatever the mod creator fancies.
Runewords provide really powerful effects, but the game can be played without them, - you get uniques, you get ways to upgrade them.
"Imbalanced" is the word I'd use the least towards Diablo 2. Maybe it's just the way I've got used to. How many more skills would you like? Cabrina uses a kick by default (on the left) and constantly switches between Cloak of Shadows, Mind Blast and Death Sentry. She also casts Venom, Fade and Shadow Master. That's 7 skills. Plus Life Tap from the wand, and then there is the Town Portal.
I would like more early game words that are applicable to more classes. Words in which I can use more Eld, Nef, Eth, Ith or something. There are not enough of them.
For skill balance, maybe some builds do not lend to much variety, but often if you invest in synergies then you build up to 2-3 skills at best. Some classes just don't have enough utility and then almost requiring dedication to one skill tree makes everything so... Linear?
The Ancients were relatively easy as there wasn't any Physical + Lightning Immune present.
Black Souls in the Worldstone Keep proved to be the hardest enemies for Cabrina in the whole run. I had to be extra careful there.
And in the Throne of Destruction, it didn't become much easier. The combination of Oblivion Knights + Dark Lords + Death Lords was scary. And I couldn't just reload the game to try and get other enemies - that would have meant going through the Black Souls again.
Baal didn't provide any real threat.
Cabrina finished the game at Lvl 83, just one level higher than Hexxat had. Now, these 2 friends are Guardians!
I should work on my focus a bit more but I feel confident again to continue my bg noreload run again. At least I got a good run of about 10 hours. Maybe I'll do another one as summoned druid with thorns merc or such. I ought to post pics next time too with a bit of a story on how I fare.
In less than 2 hours, she found: a Pul rune (provided an upgrade of the Ilzan's weapon to the Elite version) and the Blade of Ali Baba - a unique tulwar providing 1-99 MF chance (based on the character's level) with 2 sockets), a normal lacquered plate and 2 pieces from the Milabrega's Regalia.
The fun is only starting!
1.) The Pit in Act 1
2.) The Countess (for runes)
2.) Durance of Hate and Mephisto
3.) Chaos Sanctuary and Diablo
4.) Worldstone Keep and Baal
5.) Pindleskin
6.) Opening containers in Lower Kurast to hunt for high runes
The Pit is, easily, the most efficient, because it is a relatively simple Act 1 area with Act 1 monsters, who simply aren't as dangerous as what you'd see in the areas in Act III, IV, and V. It's also easily accessible, simply by using the first Monastery waypoint and venturing out into the Tamoe Highlands. On PlugY or Singleplayer, the maps only reset when the difficulty level changes, so once you find it once, it's always in the same spot (but the monsters are not the same).
I am getting an itch again...
Following the same naming theme as the deceased Prebek, this is Danys. She will focus on traps, after just hitting things in the early game. She also gets to use items that Prebek picked up, so she'll be well-equipped to start with. Single-pass full clears at players 8, at least until I start lowering the players count around nightmare act 5. Ladder runewords are enabled with a small mod, and I use GoMule to transfer items.
Early on, the best weapon is Khalim's Will. Very fast, good elemental damage, and no requirements whatsoever. You can bash your way through act 1 with no help from skills if you need to. Of course, I also give her some other things, like a 3-part Angelic set package. Only one of the rings, because I don't have a second in HC yet. Lots of Cathan's Seal, only one Angelic Halo.
Danys does pull out the traps for the act's final battle, hitting Andariel with Wake of Fire traps from long range. Both mercenary and shadow go down, but Danys pulls through.
In act 2, she switches to a Prayer mercenary Haseen. And here, I add something new to my playstyle: extensive use of Cloak of Shadows. Blinding all nearby non-boss enemies ... it's amazing crowd control. If they're not right there in melee with you, they just stand around doing nothing. No ranged attacks. No raising those skeletons you just killed. Nothing.
Late in the act, Danys reaches level 27, and Haseen gets an ethereal Insight partizan. He'll be using that for a long time, and that lets Danys become more caster than anything else.
Duriel? A lot of running, a lot of lightning sentry traps, and a dead shadow. No problem.
In act 3, I go even farther in the caster direction - a Spirit sword and Sigon's Guard. More than doubling her mana pool makes a huge difference. The silly random level design strikes in the jungle:
Level 30 comes, and Danys gets another infusion of gear - Skin of the Vipermagi, a rare +2 traps amulet, and Bonesnap on switch for Blade Fury purposes. That amulet is the only piece of gear she's using with specific assassin bonuses.
Battles are routine now, including the boss:
The uniques start flowing in act 4, including another ethereal one (Griswold's Edge). The Hellforge gives an Amn, and then she faces Diablo. Since she resists him well and has the MDR from her armor, it's an easy fight.
On to act 5. Start at level 35, rapidly gain from there. Lightning Sentry maxed out, so she starts working on Death Sentry. Nihlathak gets lots of Death Sentries, to make sure no corpse stays unexploded. The Ancients:
After that, it's one last short session to slaughter some cows. They die very fast, since they're considerably lower-level than the act 5 content. A Baal run after that, and Danys leaves normal difficulty at level 50.
Act 1 is pretty easy, because Danys outlevels the monsters by so much. They start out in the mid-30s and she's level 50 already when starting. There's only one troublesome fight I note - a double boss pack of lightning-resistant Tainted in the catacombs.
Andariel gets Lightning Sentries and Fire Blasts - despite my low level in the latter, her vulnerability makes it worthwhile. She has an easy time killing off the shadows, and spends a lot of time chasing Danys.
In act 2, a lightning enchanted Radament kills Haseen, and takes a while to put down. After another mercenary death, I trade him in for a new Holy Freeze mercenary Zanarhi. Then, mid-act, I update Danys' gear - she wields Prebek's Heart of the Oak flail now. Or, as it's shown in game, "Heart of the Oak Prebek's Flail". Also a +2 traps coronet with no other bonuses, and some mana charms. She has less MF now, with only one Nagelring and Chance Guards, but I'm fine with that. It doesn't seem to hurt, either - I find Wizendraw and Riphook in quick succession.
At level 58, in the Canyon of the Magi, I max out Death Sentry. Fire Blast comes next, for both the Death Sentry synergy and use in its own right. I still use Lightning Sentry most of the time (more lightning damage), but some fights call for Death Sentry instead. You can't hide corpses from a boss Unraveler like Ancient Kaa by blinding him. Incidentally, I always do the false tombs in these full-clear runs - I picked up Steelclash this time from that.
The Duriel fight ... basically, he chased after Danys unless she had a shadow out, and those didn't last very long. They did last long enough to lay new sets of traps, at least. One healing potion used, when she dropped down to about half health.
In act 3, level 60 and the Jade Figurine come from the same monster very early on. The Great Marsh is optional again, but I go there anyway to test myself against the Gloams. They're not too bad with 75 lightning resist and a bunch of MDR. Then the expedition rewards me - Natalya's Totem drops from a random frog boss. Perfect 20 on the resistances, too.
Later on - a +1 traps charm in the Kurast sewers. Excellent. Lots of dolls in the Durance, so I use Cloak of Shadows a lot. Their explosions are very dangerous, and that helps keep them at a distance.
For Mephisto, I start fighting him up close, but later move to the moat position:
In act 4, Izual drops a unique - Rattlecage. That's even worth using, as the 25% crushing blow is good on the mercenary. With the quest reward, Death Sentry now has 10 shots and Fire Blast is starting to do pretty good damage.
The Hellforge drops a mere Dol.
For Diablo, I drop the players count to 5; that will be my standard for act 5 as well.
Act 5 starts off well, with an Ist rune from a random slinger in the Bloody Foothills. I go after Nihlathak even before finishing the Crystalline Passage - Cloak of Shadows does a very good job of making those undead outside less scary. If they can't see you, they can't charge. Level 70 reached in the Halls of Pain, and Fire Blast is maxed out. There's a relatively free choice after that; I decide to invest in Shadow Master, for better tanking support.
One of the armor stands in the Halls of Vaught drops the unique light belt Snakecord - always check everything. Armor stands and weapon racks are interesting for item finding because they don't use the same treasure class system as other items - class specific items and very low level items are more common from them.
For Nihlathak ... Death Sentries from out of sight. He doesn't last long.
I also start picking up the occasional nonmagical item. An ethereal four-socket Feral Axe looks like a good Oath base for a future shapeshifting druid.
I take on the Ancients at level 71, going down to players 1 for this fight:
Then one last session for Nightmare - the cow level. One of those big enemy packs ...
Then a couple of easily accessed bosses (Eldritch and Pindleskin) and a Baal run. Black Souls in Worldstone 2 - a mix of Cloak of Shadows, Death Sentry, and Fire Blast work well on them. I only take a few hits from those lightning bolts, although of course I'll have to see how that holds up with the higher stats in Hell. Baal again eats through several potions, and adds in a mercenary kill or two this time. His drop includes a Milabrega's Orb.
Danys is now level 74, and ready for Hell difficulty.
Now that she's in Hell, Danys goes down to players 1 and switches to Fade instead of Burst of Speed. Maxed resistances are key for survival. The new difficulty greets her with a fire/lightning immune monster in the Blood Moor - thankfully, Zanarhi and the shadow are up to the task of killing it. Fire and lightning immune monsters are plentiful; the Cave comes with three different lightning immune monster types, and only the Fallen camps are vulnerable to the trap bolts.
The Crypt and Mausoleum are guaranteed to be 100% full of lightning immune monsters, but I go there anyway. I get the Buriza-do Kyanon for my trouble, from either the "boss" of the Crypt or one of its minions.
The Countess doesn't drop a single rune, but at least her chest sheds a Tir.
Another good item comes in the Catacombs - Demon Limb, with a near-perfect 229 ED.
Andariel goes down quickly - one set of Death Sentries, supplemented by Fire Blasts.
Act 2 brings a bunch of useful and/or rare items. Goldstrike Arch in the sewers, Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth in the Halls of the Dead (which Danys wears), Lem in the Far Oasis, The Gavel of Pain and Rixot's Keen in the palace cellar
Danys has her first panic moment in one of the false tombs - cornered by apparitions after accidentally closing a door behind her. One full rejuv drunk, and she manages to open the door and escape.
Hell Duriel isn't much harder than the Nightmare version. He focuses on and kills Zanarhi a couple of times, but that's the only real difference.
By act 3, the monsters have caught up to Danys - she's level 80, and they're about the same. Another Gavel of Pain drops in the Spider Forest, and another Goldstrike Arch in the Forgotten Temple. The Great Marsh is mandatory this time, and gives a pair of Lem runes. Since that was a rune I didn't have any of in HC before this run, it's a pretty nice reversal of fortune.
Undead Soul Killers in the Swampy Pit and Kurast Sewers, and later Undead Stygian Dolls in Durance 2, are quite troublesome - they have a nasty habit of locking on to Danys, and they move too fast to outrun. Cloak of Shadows is my best bet against them. No really close calls, but I used quite a few healing potions after battles with them.
The really rare item for the act is an ethereal Felloak in Durance 1.
Mephisto is dealt with from a safe distance:
In act 4, the very first area brings Venom Lords. Immune to fire, highly resistant to physical and lightning. They take a lot of killing, and some bosses make it even worse.
Then the second area adds Burning Souls to the Venom Lords. I get through that without any close calls, at least.
The Hellforge gives us a Gul:
Diablo is handled by staying at a distance and dodging his spells:
Finally, act 5. The last and hardest part, which killed off my previous run. There are lots of ranged attackers, against which we use lots of shadows. In fact, the first two areas don't have any regular melee monsters at all.
I have another panic moment in the Frozen River, when a ranged boss pack deals a lot of damage very quickly. I come back after drinking that fat purple ... and they're all dead already from my traps working. Sirens and Bone Mages aren't exactly sturdy.
Nihlathak comes immediately after that, and the dreaded bugged Tomb Vipers are in the Halls of Vaught. I mostly handle them with mid-range fire blasts under Cloak of Shadows, although corpse explosions help. The one Evil Urn has a Tomb Viper boss pack hidden in it - instant mercenary death, although Danys gets away with minimal damage. Then she whittles them down, and kills the boss after reviving Zanarhi.
Nihlathak himself is no trouble. Deny him corpses, and he's not much of a threat.
A second +traps charm drops in the Drifter Cavern, so Danys trades it for one of her mana charms.
I finally get that second Angelic Halo in the Ancients' Way - future characters will have a better start.
Against the Ancients, my first try features a fire/lightning immune Talic. I open a portal to reroll that one. The second has only one lightning immune, with predictable results:
Worldstone 2 has Black Souls. With a cautious approach and lots of Cloak of Shadows, I don't suffer any close calls.
No more trouble on the way to Baal, but this boss is pretty nasty. Zanarhi dies four times during the fight, and I keep bringing him back. Still, we prevail.
Finally, a victory tour. Clear out the Cow Level:
After that, the Countess. Ko on the way down, Fal from her.
The run ends here, at level 84. All areas fully cleared, all quests done. Guardian Danys will probalby farm some, but her time in the spotlight is over.
Guardian Danys, level 84 Assassin.
Stats: 150+9 Str, 120+43 Dex, 220 Vit, 25+18 Ene.
Negligible defense (448), 60% block chance.
949 life, 336 mana.
Resistances 44/50/46/37 before +45 all from Fade, 75/75/75/75 after.
Skills: 20 Fire Blast, 20 Lightning Sentry, 20 Death Sentry, 19 Shadow Master. All other trap and shadow skills 1. No martial arts skills. All trap skills get +11, all shadow skills get +5.
Fire Blast deals 1520-1827 fire damage. Lightning Sentry deals 1-2540 lightning damage. Death Sentry deals 1-2108 lightning damage with a 13.3 yard corpse explosion radius.
Items:
Neck: Rare amulet "Rune Heart" - +2 traps, +4 min damage, +18 energy, +32 life, +10% all resist, additional +14% fire resist.
Main hand: Prebek's Heart of the Oak flail - +3 all skills, +40% faster cast, +35% all resist, +10 Dex, replenish life +20, +15% maximum mana, and some weapon damage bits that don't matter.
Off hand: Sigon's Guard - +1 all skills, 69% blocking.
Weapon switch: Bonesnap - 104-149 damage, 40% crushing blow, 30% fire and cold resistance.
Torso: Skin of the Vipermagi - +1 all skills, +20% faster cast, +32% all resist, magic damage reduced by 10.
Hands: Chance Guards - +200% gold find, +31% magic find.
Left Finger: Rare ring "Havoc Grip" - +1 Str, +13 Dex, +31 mana, +30% poison resist, +4 max damage, irrelevant attack rating.
Right Finger: Rare Ring "Wraith Whorl" - +9 minimum damage, +2 Str, +23% cold resist, +6% fire resist, +15% magic find.
Waist: Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth - +20 Dex, +30 mana, 37% damage taken goes to mana, +13% magic find.
Feet: Rare Boots "Brimstone Stalker" - +20% faster move, +20% cold resist, +39% lightning resist, +59% gold find.
Inventory: 2x Entrapping Grand Charm (+1 traps each), Serpent's Grand Charm of Strength (+6 strength, +55 mana), Garnet Small Charm of Life (+9% fire resist, +10 life), Garnet Small Charm of Sustenance (+9% fire resist, +12 life), Small Charm of Vita (+19 life).
Danys runs with Fade, Venom, and Blade Shield active. She carries two rarely used columns of rejuvenation potions, one column of healing potions, and one column of mana potions.
Mercenary: Holy Freeze (act 2 Nightmare defensive), equipped with Insight ethereal partizan, ethereal Goldskin, and Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest. Maximum resistances with plenty to spare, 10% life steal, and decent damage. Also slows all enemies and makes Danys never lack for mana.
I could clearly do better, especially in the items. Casting traps and fire blasts actually runs off increased attack speed, and I have nothing other than the flail's innate speed. Also, with only +20% FRW and a heavy shield, she's not very quick on her feet. I put all those points into strength so I could wield a Spirit shield ... and then never found a Monarch to put it in. If I had some more resistances, I could switch to Burst of Speed instead of Fade - another thing that Spirit shield would help with.
Then again, this was a single pass through Hell difficulty, at players 1. It's not surprising she only found a few things to improve on what Prebek had collected.
Still, the core of the character is in the tactics. Hit them from out of sight, whether that's off screen with traps or up closer with fire blasts under Cloak of Shadows. Or hit them while they're engaged with the mercenary and shadow. Blocking and resistances help with the stray attacks that get through, of course.
If we are talking about Guardians, then I have two more:
Le Nya the Sorceress and Magog the Necromancer
There were also some attempts.
ArmoredSkeptic and ShoeOnHead amuses me there.
D1 is certainly not for every D2 fan, I agree. But I like what I'm seeing (I remember my father played it when I was young, but I have never really attempted to play it before now):
- Everything in the dungeon is so dark, it's hard to see enemies and thus it's quite scary when they pop up into the line of sight;
- Music is so atmospheric;
- You don't breeze through low levels, almost any enemy can potentially harm you, you have to stay on your guard all the time;
- The first 3 factors combined, this gives a great, old-school feeling of horror, darkness and difficulty. I like it a lot!
- When you find an item, you don't know if it's magical or not. You have to pick it and then identify if it's a magical one. And you can't just buy identify scrolls! It feels so good to find a magical item you really need!
- I first tried to play a Mage but died on the 1st level of dungeon. You know what? You can miss with spells and they cost mana... I figured I should try a rogue for unlimited arrows;
- at first, it was much easier than with a wizard. Pew-pew-pew, next one. But on the 3rd level I already felt it became much harder. Enemies started to come in packs, sometimes with mini-bosses. And then I encountered my first enemy archers;
- The Butcher... I play without spoilers so I didn't know what to expect and once I opened that door... Well, let's just say I had no chance; Time to roll a new char then and start again!
- I noticed Griswold was selling a bow with a knockback effect. I decided this can probably help me a lot;
- But items from Griswold restock in an interesting way; while I was saving money for that bow, it just disappeared from the shop!
- Then I found a magic longbow with a knockback effect! Yay! But it required 25 STR, and I didn't realize bows would require STR. Here it goes! One extra levels, and I put the points into STR.
- Finally, at lvl 10, I equip the knockback longbow. And it's stunningly effective.
- I figure I should try the Butcher this time. The bow made all the difference. The Butcher went down without getting any hit on my rogue.
More things that I like:
- Turns out, the game has unique items! From what I saw at first, I thought you should be extremely lucky to get a magical item with an attribute you're interested in. But I found a unique staff now (just in a chest). Looking forward to maybe finding more useful unique items in the future. Unlike D2, this game doesn't let you farm enemies forever (or at all), so items feel a lot more unique when you find them.
- Shrines. They are just very creative with the shrines. How about the one putting gold into every empty slot in the inventory? Or the one that closes all opened chests in the area and puts new loot into them?
- Planning for items becomes even more catching. Wirt had an amulet improving health by 38 points for 21k gold. I didn't have the amount at that time. Griswold had an amulet for sale improving health by 21 points for 8k gold. I had the amount but wanted to get Wirt's one (even while it was more expensive, I just wanted more hitpoints). The end result? While I was searching for gold, both Griswold and Wirt stopped selling these amulets...
- You have to be really careful when your items are damaged. If you don't repair them in time, they will just vanish for good.
- I like how you can use staves as a rogue if your magic skill is enough. So I found a healing staff and use it when I need to heal between battles, instead of using potions (these are helpful during combat). Maybe you can play a fighter/mage. This wasn't obvious at the start.
A few screenshots: