Development, Chapter I, verses Twelve to Sixty-Four:
And on the third day, Yatta-ihhuitl said unto Blaise: 'Behold, O fair maiden of the Sightless Eye! for I have found that which I know naught of.' And thus, Blaise spoke, saying: 'Oh my @God, that is one big ass cube you got there...'
I will take this to another thread. Just not yet. I'm too busy overhauling things to create threads
And Yatta-ihhuitl would return unto a place of safety. And in the place of safety he would open a stash, a chest no man could open. Except for every man who could open it, and woman, and raven, and orangutan, and fruit bat, and assorted other beings, all of which could also open it.
I fight with the endless army of evil monsters in the wilderness. I wonder how it is possible, that the camp was not overrun by them yet. For now, we are a little bit safer, i cleaned the evils nearest den.
I engird myself with death, and continue my holy crusade against the undead and demon horde.
After defeating Blood Raven a mercenary joined to my lonely war, and together we cleansed Tristram and freed the old sage Decard Caine. It seems, that our enemy is Diablo itself.
I found a decent weapon to face the numberless demons at last:
I seek the Countess, the creature, who bathed in the blood of hundred virgins, and was buried alive. Evil's sign everywhere:
Congrats to @lefreut , I have never beaten NM with a hardcore character. It looks like Kaelis doesn't have problems of cruising through the game.
The adventure of Xzar
Maybe Xzar should become a bard? The way he ups his leg when casting Poison Nova looks like dancing:
Dim Vision has been super effective in previous acts, and in this act it disables most dangerous enemies (so far):
At the end of Bloody Foothills, Xzar found Shank Shenk surrounded with lesser demons. Poison Nova helped here:
The only downside of using Poison Nova was its high cost in mana. But the loot from Shank solved the problem. A unique military pick, "Skull Splitter" will be a new weapon for Xzar, changing his previous paladin mace. 20% to regenerate mana is a good addition.
Xzar also socketed his Arctic Furs, as it looked like this would stay as his armor for a long time (for set item bonuses), and put a flawless skull into it (12% more to regenerate mana).
Usually I hesitate before socketing items and using gems/runes, but as my experience with this run tells me, the bonuses of actually using everything Xzar has instead of hoarding are worth it.
@lefreut Congratulations for beating Nightmare Difficulty. Woo-ho!
@JuliusBorisov From your screenshot I deduce you are casting Poison Nova way to fast. You can only poison enemies once, additional casting does not stack. It's more efficient to use Poison Nova, wait, using it again and so on.
First of all, before starting nightmare difficulty, I reset attributes and skills on Zaraki and redistributed them anew. Well, skills really. I've noticed I used Leap Attack occasionaly, and so I decided it wasn't good to invest more than 1 skill point in it. I redistributed 4 skill points to Berserk, Battle Orders and Sword Mastery.
Zaraki started act I Nightmare and cleared Den of Evil without much difficulty. The skill point as a quest reward went into Battle Orders. Quest 2 was also not a problem: the Blood Raven wasn't any notable opponent. Her drop, despite finishing her with my second weapon set, with Gull dagger (+100% mf) as offhand, was not really notable.
Now, for the Deckard Cain. During doing this quest, I noticed what the biggest threat will be for berserk barb (aside magic immune, that are very rare): elite monsters that are Cursed, Extra Strong and have Mana Burn. Extra Strong and Cursed are reducing Zaraki's advantage of huge HP ammount. And Mana Burn renders him unable to use his strongest attack. And Zaraki cannot steal mana, if he uses berserk.
But, Q3 was cleared.
The Countess was next. She gave me Shael and Tal runes, and one of her minions dropped Naj's circle.
The Smith was quite dangerous, due to his affixes. I had to use my mercenary as a tank, otherwise the fight would last much longer than it needed to me. And the Smith dropped unique item! Wow! Would be quite good for Act I.... on normal difficulty.
I choose not to upgrade any item as for now. Now, time for Andariel. I've equipped my magic find gear (for total either 205 or 210 magic find) and I haven't decide to drink few antidote potions beforehand. Well, it backfired. The fight was much more dangerous and much too long. And the rewards, of course, were not worth it. That's the titular "fail" of this post.
Well, before starting Act II I decided to grind some... on Andariel, of course. This time, however I made a compromise. I sacrificed some MF for being more efficient in fight (particularly I equipped Goblin Toe that granted me 25% crushing blow) and it was much easier and efficient that way. I've found Kelpie Snare for my merc (exceptional unique spear class weapon, notably slows attacked enemy by 75%), Aldur's Rhythm for my offhand, Ripsaw for my main weapon (unique flamberge with 80% for opening wounds) and Rockfleece as my new armor (uniqe Field Plate, gives +10% resistance to physical damage, which is rare). Zaraki is now stronger and he looks much more badass, so time for Act 2.
I've hired merc that had Holy Freeze aura. Radament the Fallen has fallen quite easily. I've welcomed my new skill point.
After that, I immediately rushed to Far Oasis for the Staff of Kings. Coldworm the Burrower was as helpless as usual.
When Zaraki traveled through the Lost City, he had an interesting fight, against 2 unique packs at once. Spine Kill and superuniqe Dark Elder (not visible on the pic)
The Claw Viper temple was annoying. Not particularly dangerous, but annoying. It's that claw vipers have a habit of using their charge attack, which knocks you back, multiple times in a row. It's even worse when there are multiple opponents. But, Horadric Staff is now mine.
When exploring Palace Cellar levels, Zaraki found Tusk Sword with 3 sockets. Perfect for certain runeword! With this, I almost doubled the ammount of damage I did.
The Summoner wasn't very notable opponent - he never was. But I have to give him some credit - at least he last much longer than he did on normal difficulty. Now, I know the symbol of the true tomb of Tal Rasha.
I've immediately found the true tomb and started exploring it. I was lucky with monster combination. Scarabs, Ghoul Lords, Gorebellies. I was just relieved that there was no Unravellers, since these bastards are highly resistant to magic damage, which I am mainly using. Scarabs were not a problem with 75% lightning resist and my ammount of hit points. Gorebellies however were notable for their chance to inflict crushing blow, which takes % of my life in one hit.
Finally, here's Duriel. I am wearing the "compromise set" on my character, with about 150%-160% magic find on 2nd weapon set. Here's the battle:
And unto Blaise said Yatta-ihhuitl: 'Relinquish thine leathers, for thy bosom cannot breathe.' And Blaise frowned. And thence she would don a set of full plate to conceal her flesh from his eye.
When travelling through Frigid Highlands, Xzar found an Amn rune, which immediately reminded him about a country to the south from Baldur's Gate a possible runeword, the one he had been dreaming ever since finding a socketed dagger in the Act III.
With the "Strength" dagger, Xzar's damage and attack rating were closer to the standards set by an amazon Xzar had heard about, by the name Kaelis:
The most important thing with finding an Amn rune and creating this runeword was that Xzar finally, after 31 levels, switched to using a dagger, and this runeword provided stealing Life and increasing Mana after each skill - two factors very important for a dagger/novamancer.
On a sidenote, Xzar already found 3 items from the Cathan's Traps Set: a mask, a chain mail, and now a battle staff. Too pity he couldn't meet any sorceress during his travels:
As for the enemies on Frigid Highlands and Abaddon, Dim Vision disabled Blood Lords' attack potential and Lashers' necroing abilities, but didn't prevent Crush Beasts from using Inferno:
Charsi the local blacksmith gave me a quest. She would like to get back his malus. In the old monastery barracks i found the thing for her.
Charsi made a good weapon for me as a reward for my help.
I must seek the demoness Aradriel first, if i would like to defeat Diablo. The abandoned Monastery is in a very saddening condition, desecrated by the evil minions of the demon lord.
But even the demons couldn't destroy completely the beauty of this place.
At the camp i noticed a fine armor at the gambler, and i can't leave it. With it i will bring ven much light to those dark and evil places, where i must fight in the future.
As i delve deeper in the monastery catacombs i must face dire and dire creatures, like enormous spiders
and undead wizards in disturbingly high numbers.
The undead wizards however posessed this gem, which will be a better place in my left, defending me from the evil.
Finally i reached Andariel's lair. I exorcised the foul demoness from our world.
And Yatta-ihhuitl approached a nearby stone tablet, whereupon he would lay a scroll of tree bark. And it was no longer strewn with a shitload of hideous graphical glitches which the original Blizzard artist was too lazy to fix a mystery that it detailed the order in which to activate cairn stones.
@lefreut So sorry to hear that! From your reports I imagined you'd beat the game in no time... It looked like a ranged amazon would be the best choice for a hardcore character... I can't believe that it has ended.
I fully understand your frustration. Losing a hardcore character so late in the game has always been hard to take. Thank you for sharing the story of Kaelis. Let's see if anyone here ever reaches Act II on Hell...
After Retso death i start a sorceress on her way to the hell. Meet Lolien Rolio:
And her first loot:
Well she has Tymora's favour. But she was the first character, for whom Blood Raven put up a decent fight. With Retso and Joneleth i just managed to read the Raven's name, and she died with much lightning. Lolien had to gulp some potions and retreat more times. In the end she prevailed against Kashya's former friend.
Another day, another necro wand:
Let's see what we will find in the second dungeon...
Green labeled items are a good find at this time if i know right.
Also a good amulet on the stony fields:
In Tristram i managed to inspect Griswold face thoroughly first time since i started these no-reload runs:
My first gem shrine, since i know how to use this properly:
Lolien purchased a nice staff with +3 frozen armor ability.
Charged bolt starts to shine slowly:
And Lolien changes her +3 frozen armor staff for a +2 shiver armor one.
Some shiny lights from the pit, the barracks and the jail:
And one shiny belt from the chatedral:
It looks good with Lolien's modish coat:
And look! Another greeny!
A selfy with Andariel,
and one with the dying Andariel.
Lolien stores Andariel's now derelict chain boots,
and she goes back to the dark wood to upgrade the topaz, which Andariel provided for her gently.
Lolien Rolio has started with immense luck! And all those items came without many MF-increasing factors... Xzar still (at the end of Act V) uses Arctic Furs+Arctic Binding combination due to 40% MF chance and +10 to all resistances (even though the belt only provides 2 rows of potions). Lovin' it!
Also, neat about getting a flawless topaz in Act I.
The adventure of Xzar
During his travels, Xzar found a circlet, and, hearing tales these items can have quite good enchantments, teleported back to Charsi to upgrade it. He got a circlet improving his magic, which on that point was considered useful, even though it meant taking off a 22% MF helmet.
Xzar defeated 2 unique Act V bosses - Frozenstein and Pindleskin.
2 unique items - "Hellcast" heavy crossbow and "Hawkmail" scail mail were his reward.
Xzar found a flawless topaz and a normal topaz, to create a 36% MF bone helm. From Anya, he bought greaves of luck with 28% MF chance. I didn't know a general item can have an enchantment more than 25%.
Thanks to these enchantments, or just because of Mystra's smile, Xzar stumbled across a probably best on that stage of the game necromancer-specific shield, which gave +1 to all necromancer skills and provided +3 to Fire Golem (the strongest of all golems, available at the 30th level). Now Xzar could easily switch between his Ancients' Pledge and this new Gargoyle Head, to summon a powerful ally or even to improve his Poison Nova.
Xzar also found a new bow for Klaudia, which changed a unique bow from Act II (the damage increased in two times).
With all those items, Xzar was ready to face the Ancients. The battle was not the easiest, of course, but still Xzar came victorious, without even letting Klaudia die.
A few new levels acquired in the Act V changed Xzar completely. Now 3 or 4 charges of Poison Nova were enough to kill any general enemies, while his new Fire Golem of the 4th level (without even putting one point there) was a formiddable fighter, able to hold on its own. With new items Xzar got a decent mana regeneration and his dagger could inflict up to 400 damage in 6 seconds.
Xzar proceeded to the Throne of Destruction and dealt with Bhaal's Baal's minions, including Listor the Tormentor.
Among their remainings, Xzar found a set item suitable to necromancers, a Grim Wand - "Infernal Torch". It provided +1 to all necromancer skills and further improved a Fire Golem at summoning.
Using Poison Nova against Baal was not effective.
Unlike Diablo, Baal couldn't one-shot a golem, so Xzar proceeded to attacking the demon with his dagger. It went much faster after that.
Xzar let Klaudia to finish Baal, but he only dropped rare items. One of them, though, became a new bow for Klaudia.
So, Xzar became known as Destroyer Xzar.
These are Xzar's stats upon starting the Nightmare Act I (look at resistances, even with NM -40% penalty to resistances, Xzar's figures are astonishing).
These are Xzar's items, inluding the stash (it was of course difficult to get rid of extra stuff, like set items, but D2 without mods doesn't offer anything else):
P.S. My vacation is closing in, so the continuation of this tale will happen in a month-time. Or maybe I'll make a hiatus in this adventure and will try another character, a more melee-oriented build. I'm thinking about a "vampire assassin", i.e. an assassin using Cobra strike for leeching life and mana). Long live to all Diablo heroes!
Zaraki's Nightmare II: The Jungle of the Good Uncle Mephisto
I've wanted to get over with the first part of A3 as soon as possible. I've managed to find The Spider Cavern pretty soon, but first I've encountered 3 elite packs of Thorned Hulks (not at once, of course. One such pack dropped the statue). They are notable, since after each successful attack, their attack speed is rising, making it very hard for Berserk-oriented to combat them. I had to use Concentrate instead. Regardless, first of Khalim's organs was mine.
Now, for the Gidbinn and to the Flyer's Dungeon. There were two problems. First, it took me awhile to find Flyer's Jungle and the Gidbinn. But I did, eventually. Second problem... In Flyer's Dungeon, one of the spawns are Undead Flyers. These small, fast and annoying bastards are like walking atomic nukes. They do a lot of damage, attacks in groups and explode for huge ammount of damage on being killed - and they're easy to kill. Basically, area-of-effect skills can bring you death there. These are hands down the most annoying monsters in the game, no doubt designed by some thoughtless ape or sadistic serial killer. But well, I eventually snatched Khalim's second organ.
To make things funnier, Ormus did not gave me any useful reward.
Now, quest 4. I've approached the Lower Kurast, battled Stormtree, reached Kurast Baazar, found the Ruined Temple and, slaughtering everything I got Lam Esen's Tome. 5 stat points went into dexterity.
I've went down to the sewers and, after long search I've found entrance to level 2 and 3rd Khalim's organ. Of course, I was often accompanied by my, apparently, greatest fans: Undead Flyers.
Travincal. The Council Members fell surprisingly easily. Now, Khalim's flail is complete and I gained access to final dungeon of this act.
And so I explored the Durace of Hate, and it's second level for the Waypoint. Then I searched for level 3. Of course, my biggest "fans" were following me everywhere... (my poor blood pressure)
After following this thread, I started my own Necro a while ago. Today I finished the catacombs and act 1
I started single player Hardcore, after trying out the closed battle.net, but on my wi-fi I have a bit of a lag sometimes. I don't wanna die this way. Good thing the necro hasn't much use for certain runewords anyway, would be worse for a sorc or hammerdin.
I haven't had much luck with magic find on my way to andariel. Picked up my yellow ring on lvl3 of the catacombs, the gloves were a boon from Charsi .
I tried to prepare for the fight vs. Andariel as best as possible, so I brought a belt full of potions, and 5 antidotes hidden in the inventory. Wasted one on my rogue, she died seconds later after one poison salve.
My Lvl 2 golem endured 3 hits, me with a decent block rate and poison resistance could stand my ground too. But in the end I was very low on mana and had to loot the fallen for health potions, but could finish her without returning to town.
My streak of bad luck was over. Finally some loot and something very usefull too: A gull dagger. Instantly +100 mf and decent damage. I just have to do something for my mana pool, as I spent everything on Dexterity and Vitality. A dagger necro that can't hit anything isn't of much use later. If I only had a better shield...
small update: Radament nearly got to me. Who would have guessed that his poison is stronger then andariel's. Had to flee to town and regroup. My newly hired desert wolf didn't make it back.
And Yatta-ihhuitl looked upon the markings on the floor. And he remembered that, in times long bygone, ancient Horadrim artificers would etch ritual circles such as this upon the ground and imbue them with their arcane magics. Though the secrets of its inner workings were lost forever, he knew he could travel far and wide by means of the mystic powers that still hallowed the site.
and cleared the Halls of the dead searching for the Horadric cube. In the halls she found another set shield:
and a unique two handed sword:
a Nef rune in the dry hills:
After visiting back to the undiscovered part of the sewers she could change her unique scimitar to a unique smoked sphere:
The scimitar was a find from somewhere in Act I, here is a it, if someone is interested:
These two armour from the maggot's lair level1 seems to be also unique:
Coldworm died with much gore, but without much resistance:
Lolien Rolio went to the Claw Viper's temple to bring back the light. The vipers died surprisingly easy. Until Lolien stepped into Fangskin chamber.
I somehow managed to get a screenshot before Lolien's death. The vipers closed her to the wall and it happened in several seconds. Maybe some rejunevation potions in her belt could prevent this occurance.
Lolien was surprisingly lucky to this point, and being a non-hardcore character maybe i'll continue her run in the future, but here, in the no-reload section, her story ends unfortunately.
I'm thinking about a "vampire assassin", i.e. an assassin using Cobra strike for leeching life and mana). Long live to all Diablo heroes!
What a coincidence! Before your post i started a similar run, however i had known nothing about assassin's skills and cobra strike that time.
Meet with Bodhi, on her way to find her lost brother! (As a sidenote: do anyone know what was Bodhi's elf name before she became exiled?)
Bodhi must have recline more upon her raw power, than lucky item finds. She cleaned the Den of Evil to gain Akara's trust, and purchased a life stealing katar at Charsi from the sold loot:
She match her strenght against Blood Raven. Bodhi turned out to be the stronger:
Her best find is a rare katar from the dark woods so far:
BG2 does never tell us Bodhi's real name or even hint at whether Bodhi a real name or not. Good luck to Bodhi, anyway! Good job I called my assassin Hexxat, not Bodhi, though
BTW, all credit goes to @lolien. How one can create perfect gems in Act 1 legally:
Step 1. Find a chipped gem. Step 2. Find a gem shrine. Step 3. Use this gem shrine. Step 4. Load the game again and keep looking for a new gem shrine. Don't give up and keep looking. Keep looking I say. Step 5. Use a new gem shrine. Repeat steps 4-5 till you get what you want.
On a side note, I've spent several hours deciding on a build for an assassin. This class seems to offer so many different options, more than anything else I've seen. Dragon claw + Tiger Strike version. Dragon Tale + Tiger Strike version. Elementalist. Trapassassin. Venomsin. Hybrids. Other choices. I've still gone with a vampire route, just because there's not much information about it. Another choice is whether to use Burst of Speed (higher running speed and higher attacking speed) or Fade (resistances).
Comments
Diablo II Enhanced Edition
Development, Chapter I, verses Twelve to Sixty-Four:
And on the third day, Yatta-ihhuitl said unto Blaise:'Behold, O fair maiden of the Sightless Eye! for I have found that which I know naught of.'
And thus, Blaise spoke, saying:
'Oh my @God, that is one big ass cube you got there...'
I will take this to another thread. Just not yet. I'm too busy overhauling things to create threads
Diablo II Enhanced Edition
Development, Chapter II, verses One to Two:
And sothe Nameless OneYatta-ihhuitl spoke, saying:'Updated my
journalinventory.'Diablo II Enhanced Edition
Development, Chapter III, verses Almost Infinite:
And Yatta-ihhuitl would return unto a place of safety. And in the place of safety he would open a stash, a chest no man could open. Except for every man who could open it, and woman, and raven, and orangutan, and fruit bat, and assorted other beings, all of which could also open it.I fight with the endless army of evil monsters in the wilderness. I wonder how it is possible, that the camp was not overrun by them yet. For now, we are a little bit safer, i cleaned the evils nearest den.
I engird myself with death, and continue my holy crusade against the undead and demon horde.
After defeating Blood Raven a mercenary joined to my lonely war, and together we cleansed Tristram and freed the old sage Decard Caine.
It seems, that our enemy is Diablo itself.
I found a decent weapon to face the numberless demons at last:
I seek the Countess, the creature, who bathed in the blood of hundred virgins, and was buried alive. Evil's sign everywhere:
But in the end, light shall prevail!
The adventure of Xzar
Maybe Xzar should become a bard? The way he ups his leg when casting Poison Nova looks like dancing:
Dim Vision has been super effective in previous acts, and in this act it disables most dangerous enemies (so far):
At the end of Bloody Foothills, Xzar found
ShankShenk surrounded with lesser demons. Poison Nova helped here:The only downside of using Poison Nova was its high cost in mana. But the loot from Shank solved the problem. A unique military pick, "Skull Splitter" will be a new weapon for Xzar, changing his previous paladin mace. 20% to regenerate mana is a good addition.
Xzar also socketed his Arctic Furs, as it looked like this would stay as his armor for a long time (for set item bonuses), and put a flawless skull into it (12% more to regenerate mana).
Usually I hesitate before socketing items and using gems/runes, but as my experience with this run tells me, the bonuses of actually using everything Xzar has instead of hoarding are worth it.
@lefreut Congratulations for beating Nightmare Difficulty. Woo-ho!
@JuliusBorisov From your screenshot I deduce you are casting Poison Nova way to fast. You can only poison enemies once, additional casting does not stack. It's more efficient to use Poison Nova, wait, using it again and so on.
@God Looks excellent
Zaraki's Nightmare I:
Fails and Wins
First of all, before starting nightmare difficulty, I reset attributes and skills on Zaraki and redistributed them anew. Well, skills really. I've noticed I used Leap Attack occasionaly, and so I decided it wasn't good to invest more than 1 skill point in it. I redistributed 4 skill points to Berserk, Battle Orders and Sword Mastery.
Zaraki started act I Nightmare and cleared Den of Evil without much difficulty. The skill point as a quest reward went into Battle Orders. Quest 2 was also not a problem: the Blood Raven wasn't any notable opponent. Her drop, despite finishing her with my second weapon set, with Gull dagger (+100% mf) as offhand, was not really notable.
Now, for the Deckard Cain. During doing this quest, I noticed what the biggest threat will be for berserk barb (aside magic immune, that are very rare): elite monsters that are Cursed, Extra Strong and have Mana Burn. Extra Strong and Cursed are reducing Zaraki's advantage of huge HP ammount. And Mana Burn renders him unable to use his strongest attack. And Zaraki cannot steal mana, if he uses berserk.
But, Q3 was cleared.
The Countess was next. She gave me Shael and Tal runes, and one of her minions dropped Naj's circle.
The Smith was quite dangerous, due to his affixes. I had to use my mercenary as a tank, otherwise the fight would last much longer than it needed to me. And the Smith dropped unique item! Wow! Would be quite good for Act I.... on normal difficulty.
I choose not to upgrade any item as for now. Now, time for Andariel. I've equipped my magic find gear (for total either 205 or 210 magic find) and I haven't decide to drink few antidote potions beforehand. Well, it backfired. The fight was much more dangerous and much too long. And the rewards, of course, were not worth it. That's the titular "fail" of this post.
Well, before starting Act II I decided to grind some... on Andariel, of course. This time, however I made a compromise. I sacrificed some MF for being more efficient in fight (particularly I equipped Goblin Toe that granted me 25% crushing blow) and it was much easier and efficient that way. I've found Kelpie Snare for my merc (exceptional unique spear class weapon, notably slows attacked enemy by 75%), Aldur's Rhythm for my offhand, Ripsaw for my main weapon (unique flamberge with 80% for opening wounds) and Rockfleece as my new armor (uniqe Field Plate, gives +10% resistance to physical damage, which is rare). Zaraki is now stronger and he looks much more badass, so time for Act 2.
I've hired merc that had Holy Freeze aura. Radament the Fallen has fallen quite easily. I've welcomed my new skill point.
After that, I immediately rushed to Far Oasis for the Staff of Kings. Coldworm the Burrower was as helpless as usual.
When Zaraki traveled through the Lost City, he had an interesting fight, against 2 unique packs at once. Spine Kill and superuniqe Dark Elder (not visible on the pic)
The Claw Viper temple was annoying. Not particularly dangerous, but annoying. It's that claw vipers have a habit of using their charge attack, which knocks you back, multiple times in a row. It's even worse when there are multiple opponents. But, Horadric Staff is now mine.
When exploring Palace Cellar levels, Zaraki found Tusk Sword with 3 sockets. Perfect for certain runeword! With this, I almost doubled the ammount of damage I did.
The Summoner wasn't very notable opponent - he never was. But I have to give him some credit - at least he last much longer than he did on normal difficulty. Now, I know the symbol of the true tomb of Tal Rasha.
I've immediately found the true tomb and started exploring it. I was lucky with monster combination. Scarabs, Ghoul Lords, Gorebellies. I was just relieved that there was no Unravellers, since these bastards are highly resistant to magic damage, which I am mainly using. Scarabs were not a problem with 75% lightning resist and my ammount of hit points. Gorebellies however were notable for their chance to inflict crushing blow, which takes % of my life in one hit.
Finally, here's Duriel. I am wearing the "compromise set" on my character, with about 150%-160% magic find on 2nd weapon set. Here's the battle:
This bastard had fallen easier than Andariel.... titular win I presume? Anyway, Act III, here I come!
Diablo II Enhanced Edition
Development, Chapter IV, verses A to Double D
And unto Blaise said Yatta-ihhuitl:'Relinquish thine leathers, for thy bosom cannot breathe.'
And Blaise frowned. And thence she would don a set of full plate to conceal her flesh from his eye.
When travelling through Frigid Highlands, Xzar found an Amn rune, which immediately reminded him about
a country to the south from Baldur's Gatea possible runeword, the one he had been dreaming ever since finding a socketed dagger in the Act III.With the "Strength" dagger, Xzar's damage and attack rating were closer to the standards set by an amazon Xzar had heard about, by the name Kaelis:
The most important thing with finding an Amn rune and creating this runeword was that Xzar finally, after 31 levels, switched to using a dagger, and this runeword provided stealing Life and increasing Mana after each skill - two factors very important for a dagger/novamancer.
On a sidenote, Xzar already found 3 items from the Cathan's Traps Set: a mask, a chain mail, and now a battle staff. Too pity he couldn't meet any sorceress during his travels:
As for the enemies on Frigid Highlands and Abaddon, Dim Vision disabled Blood Lords' attack potential and Lashers' necroing abilities, but didn't prevent Crush Beasts from using Inferno:
Charsi the local blacksmith gave me a quest. She would like to get back his malus. In the old monastery barracks i found the thing for her.
Charsi made a good weapon for me as a reward for my help.
I must seek the demoness Aradriel first, if i would like to defeat Diablo. The abandoned Monastery is in a very saddening condition, desecrated by the evil minions of the demon lord.
But even the demons couldn't destroy completely the beauty of this place.
At the camp i noticed a fine armor at the gambler, and i can't leave it. With it i will bring ven much light to those dark and evil places, where i must fight in the future.
As i delve deeper in the monastery catacombs i must face dire and dire creatures, like enormous spiders
The undead wizards however posessed this gem, which will be a better place in my left, defending me from the evil.
Finally i reached Andariel's lair. I exorcised the foul demoness from our world.
Diablo II Enhanced Edition
Development, Chapter V, cairn stones 1 to 5:
And Yatta-ihhuitl approached a nearby stone tablet, whereupon he would lay a scroll of tree bark. And it was no longerstrewn with a shitload of hideous graphical glitches which the original Blizzard artist was too lazy to fixa mystery that it detailed the order in which to activate cairn stones.I fully understand your frustration. Losing a hardcore character so late in the game has always been hard to take. Thank you for sharing the story of Kaelis. Let's see if anyone here ever reaches Act II on Hell...
Retso Tnert died by some random walking dead on his way to the claw vipers.
Some screenshots about his journey:
To Retso Tnert credit, he was good at bug hunting.
And her first loot:
Well she has Tymora's favour. But she was the first character, for whom Blood Raven put up a decent fight. With Retso and Joneleth i just managed to read the Raven's name, and she died with much lightning. Lolien had to gulp some potions and retreat more times. In the end she prevailed against Kashya's former friend.
Another day, another necro wand:
Let's see what we will find in the second dungeon...
Green labeled items are a good find at this time if i know right.
Also a good amulet on the stony fields:
In Tristram i managed to inspect Griswold face thoroughly first time since i started these no-reload runs:
My first gem shrine, since i know how to use this properly:
Lolien purchased a nice staff with +3 frozen armor ability.
Charged bolt starts to shine slowly:
And Lolien changes her +3 frozen armor staff for a +2 shiver armor one.
Some shiny lights from the pit, the barracks and the jail:
And one shiny belt from the chatedral:
It looks good with Lolien's modish coat:
And look! Another greeny!
A selfy with Andariel,
and one with the dying Andariel.
Lolien stores Andariel's now derelict chain boots,
and she goes back to the dark wood to upgrade the topaz, which Andariel provided for her gently.
The shield and the boots, if anyone interested:
Also, neat about getting a flawless topaz in Act I.
The adventure of Xzar
During his travels, Xzar found a circlet, and, hearing tales these items can have quite good enchantments, teleported back to Charsi to upgrade it. He got a circlet improving his magic, which on that point was considered useful, even though it meant taking off a 22% MF helmet.
Xzar defeated 2 unique Act V bosses - Frozenstein and Pindleskin.
2 unique items - "Hellcast" heavy crossbow and "Hawkmail" scail mail were his reward.
Xzar found a flawless topaz and a normal topaz, to create a 36% MF bone helm. From Anya, he bought greaves of luck with 28% MF chance. I didn't know a general item can have an enchantment more than 25%.
Thanks to these enchantments, or just because of Mystra's smile, Xzar stumbled across a probably best on that stage of the game necromancer-specific shield, which gave +1 to all necromancer skills and provided +3 to Fire Golem (the strongest of all golems, available at the 30th level). Now Xzar could easily switch between his Ancients' Pledge and this new Gargoyle Head, to summon a powerful ally or even to improve his Poison Nova.
Xzar also found a new bow for Klaudia, which changed a unique bow from Act II (the damage increased in two times).
With all those items, Xzar was ready to face the Ancients. The battle was not the easiest, of course, but still Xzar came victorious, without even letting Klaudia die.
A few new levels acquired in the Act V changed Xzar completely. Now 3 or 4 charges of Poison Nova were enough to kill any general enemies, while his new Fire Golem of the 4th level (without even putting one point there) was a formiddable fighter, able to hold on its own. With new items Xzar got a decent mana regeneration and his dagger could inflict up to 400 damage in 6 seconds.
Xzar proceeded to the Throne of Destruction and dealt with
Bhaal'sBaal's minions, including Listor the Tormentor.Among their remainings, Xzar found a set item suitable to necromancers, a Grim Wand - "Infernal Torch". It provided +1 to all necromancer skills and further improved a Fire Golem at summoning.
Using Poison Nova against Baal was not effective.
Unlike Diablo, Baal couldn't one-shot a golem, so Xzar proceeded to attacking the demon with his dagger. It went much faster after that.
Xzar let Klaudia to finish Baal, but he only dropped rare items. One of them, though, became a new bow for Klaudia.
So, Xzar became known as Destroyer Xzar.
These are Xzar's stats upon starting the Nightmare Act I (look at resistances, even with NM -40% penalty to resistances, Xzar's figures are astonishing).
These are Xzar's items, inluding the stash (it was of course difficult to get rid of extra stuff, like set items, but D2 without mods doesn't offer anything else):
P.S. My vacation is closing in, so the continuation of this tale will happen in a month-time. Or maybe I'll make a hiatus in this adventure and will try another character, a more melee-oriented build. I'm thinking about a "vampire assassin", i.e. an assassin using Cobra strike for leeching life and mana). Long live to all Diablo heroes!
The Jungle of
the Good UncleMephistoI've wanted to get over with the first part of A3 as soon as possible. I've managed to find The Spider Cavern pretty soon, but first I've encountered 3 elite packs of Thorned Hulks (not at once, of course. One such pack dropped the statue). They are notable, since after each successful attack, their attack speed is rising, making it very hard for Berserk-oriented to combat them. I had to use Concentrate instead. Regardless, first of Khalim's organs was mine.
Now, for the Gidbinn and to the Flyer's Dungeon. There were two problems. First, it took me awhile to find Flyer's Jungle and the Gidbinn. But I did, eventually. Second problem... In Flyer's Dungeon, one of the spawns are Undead Flyers. These small, fast and annoying bastards are like walking atomic nukes. They do a lot of damage, attacks in groups and explode for huge ammount of damage on being killed - and they're easy to kill. Basically, area-of-effect skills can bring you death there. These are hands down the most annoying monsters in the game, no doubt designed by some thoughtless ape or sadistic serial killer. But well, I eventually snatched Khalim's second organ.
To make things funnier, Ormus did not gave me any useful reward.
Now, quest 4. I've approached the Lower Kurast, battled Stormtree, reached Kurast Baazar, found the Ruined Temple and, slaughtering everything I got Lam Esen's Tome. 5 stat points went into dexterity.
I've went down to the sewers and, after long search I've found entrance to level 2 and 3rd Khalim's organ. Of course, I was often accompanied by my, apparently, greatest fans: Undead Flyers.
Travincal. The Council Members fell surprisingly easily. Now, Khalim's flail is complete and I gained access to final dungeon of this act.
And so I explored the Durace of Hate, and it's second level for the Waypoint. Then I searched for level 3. Of course, my biggest "fans" were following me everywhere... (my poor blood pressure)
Finally, Unlce Mephisto!
I've progressed to Act IV. This is only notable thing Good Uncle decided to share this time:
Nice for Druids, I guess. And before I start clearing act IV, I think I will pester Good Uncle Mephisto for some time. Maybe he'll give me something.
Here what he gave me lately:
I started single player Hardcore, after trying out the closed battle.net, but on my wi-fi I have a bit of a lag sometimes. I don't wanna die this way. Good thing the necro hasn't much use for certain runewords anyway, would be worse for a sorc or hammerdin.
I haven't had much luck with magic find on my way to andariel. Picked up my yellow ring on lvl3 of the catacombs, the gloves were a boon from Charsi .
I tried to prepare for the fight vs. Andariel as best as possible, so I brought a belt full of potions, and 5 antidotes hidden in the inventory.
Wasted one on my rogue, she died seconds later after one poison salve.
My Lvl 2 golem endured 3 hits, me with a decent block rate and poison resistance could stand my ground too. But in the end I was very low on mana and had to loot the fallen for health potions, but could finish her without returning to town.
My streak of bad luck was over. Finally some loot and something very usefull too:
A gull dagger. Instantly +100 mf and decent damage. I just have to do something for my mana pool, as I spent everything on Dexterity and Vitality. A dagger necro that can't hit anything isn't of much use later.
If I only had a better shield...
small update: Radament nearly got to me. Who would have guessed that his poison is stronger then andariel's. Had to flee to town and regroup. My newly hired desert wolf didn't make it back.
Diablo II Enhanced Edition
Development, Chapter VI, waypoints 1 to 9:
And Yatta-ihhuitl looked upon the markings on the floor. And he remembered that, in times long bygone, ancient Horadrim artificers would etch ritual circles such as this upon the ground and imbue them with their arcane magics. Though the secrets of its inner workings were lost forever, he knew he could travel far and wide by means of the mystic powers that still hallowed the site.and cleared the Halls of the dead searching for the Horadric cube. In the halls she found another set shield:
and a unique two handed sword:
a Nef rune in the dry hills:
After visiting back to the undiscovered part of the sewers she could change her unique scimitar to a unique smoked sphere:
These two armour from the maggot's lair level1 seems to be also unique:
Coldworm died with much gore, but without much resistance:
Lolien Rolio went to the Claw Viper's temple to bring back the light. The vipers died surprisingly easy.
Until Lolien stepped into Fangskin chamber.
I somehow managed to get a screenshot before Lolien's death. The vipers closed her to the wall and it happened in several seconds. Maybe some rejunevation potions in her belt could prevent this occurance.
Lolien was surprisingly lucky to this point, and being a non-hardcore character maybe i'll continue her run in the future, but here, in the no-reload section, her story ends unfortunately.
Meet with Bodhi, on her way to find her lost brother! (As a sidenote: do anyone know what was Bodhi's elf name before she became exiled?)
Bodhi must have recline more upon her raw power, than lucky item finds.
She cleaned the Den of Evil to gain Akara's trust, and purchased a life stealing katar at Charsi from the sold loot:
She match her strenght against Blood Raven. Bodhi turned out to be the stronger:
Her best find is a rare katar from the dark woods so far:
Her stats at the 12. level:
BTW, all credit goes to @lolien. How one can create perfect gems in Act 1 legally:
Step 1. Find a chipped gem.
Step 2. Find a gem shrine.
Step 3. Use this gem shrine.
Step 4. Load the game again and keep looking for a new gem shrine. Don't give up and keep looking. Keep looking I say.
Step 5. Use a new gem shrine.
Repeat steps 4-5 till you get what you want.
On a side note, I've spent several hours deciding on a build for an assassin. This class seems to offer so many different options, more than anything else I've seen. Dragon claw + Tiger Strike version. Dragon Tale + Tiger Strike version. Elementalist. Trapassassin. Venomsin. Hybrids. Other choices. I've still gone with a vampire route, just because there's not much information about it. Another choice is whether to use Burst of Speed (higher running speed and higher attacking speed) or Fade (resistances).