Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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Bush4Ever.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by Bush4Ever. »

Fucking Barbarian can eat a dick.

I've gotten four of my five new characters (all classes minus Paladin and Assassin) into Act 3 nightmare with zero deaths in online mode and virtually zero problems (minus a little bit of a War of Attrition with Normal Diablo and Nightmare Duriel and my Necromancer), and this fucking meathead can't crowd control for shit.

He just twirls around like a dumb fuck and yells like a tard while my merc struggles to kill single monsters at a time with a polearm that does 108 average damage.

This idiot is on his third death. I got like 70 percent of the way (guessing) through Tal Rasha's true tomb and he can't clear a relatively basic mob my Paladin, Sorceress, Druid, or Amazon would have cleared inside of five seconds.

I'm pissed AF!
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by PhutureDynasty »

Bush4Ever. wrote: Sun Jun 11, 2023 9:42 pm Fucking Barbarian can eat a dick.

I've gotten four of my five new characters (all classes minus Paladin and Assassin) into Act 3 nightmare with zero deaths in online mode and virtually zero problems (minus a little bit of a War of Attrition with Normal Diablo and Nightmare Duriel and my Necromancer), and this fucking meathead can't crowd control for shit.

He just twirls around like a dumb fuck and yells like a tard while my merc struggles to kill single monsters at a time with a polearm that does 108 average damage.

This idiot is on his third death. I got like 70 percent of the way (guessing) through Tal Rasha's true tomb and he can't clear a relatively basic mob my Paladin, Sorceress, Druid, or Amazon would have cleared inside of five seconds.

I'm pissed AF!
I respect your grind. It'll take much longer with him because, as discussed, he needs gear that requires tedious changing/upgrading as he levels to stay equal or better than the mob you're fighting.

Also, it's not like he has great crowd clearing abilities besides whirlwind and that's not even amazing.

Have you been utilizing his Warcries? I know you said he yells but I don't know if you meant his ability or just his character.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by Bush4Ever. »

I do have a few points into his warcries, although I probably need to get better at utilizing them.

It seems like the barbarian and necromancer require the most micromanaging in terms of what you do actually moving your character with your controller (I use a controller despite being on PC) or whatever. Utilizing curses properly and getting better at corpse explosion helped with the necromancer, although bosses are still a struggle.

I probably need to get insight on my merc too. I'm tired of consuming mana pots nonstop.

Edit: Finally got him through. He actually handled Duriel pretty solidly. I think avoiding some of the A+++ levels mobs helps, especially when they are banked by a resurrecting monster.

On to Act 3...barf (at least the first half pre-Lower Kurast).
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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Bush4Ever. wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2023 10:19 am I do have a few points into his warcries, although I probably need to get better at utilizing them.

It seems like the barbarian and necromancer require the most micromanaging in terms of what you do actually moving your character with your controller (I use a controller despite being on PC) or whatever. Utilizing curses properly and getting better at corpse explosion helped with the necromancer, although bosses are still a struggle.

I probably need to get insight on my merc too. I'm tired of consuming mana pots nonstop.

Edit: Finally got him through. He actually handled Duriel pretty solidly. I think avoiding some of the A+++ levels mobs helps, especially when they are banked by a resurrecting monster.

On to Act 3...barf (at least the first half pre-Lower Kurast).
Nice. Glad you were triumphant.

Frenzy is a solid skill to just hit and run. It also stacks and makes you faster with each hit.

If you can find gear that has leech (life steal) that's very helpful for him too.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by Bush4Ever. »

Jesus, I just had the mother of all battles with the Ancients (Amazon class).

I'm running the five classes I'm playing now (Amazon, Sorceress, Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer) and at the point where all I have to do for each is beat the Ancients, activate Worldstone Chamber waypoint, and beat Baal.

I get to the Ancients and start the battle. Dumb fuck Durga (mercenary) stands there and gets wrecked. He gave me a good three or so arrow hits as a meat shield before dropping dead (thanks pal!).

I get gang rushed by the trio...dodging the axes, swerving, moving to avoid Talic's whirlwind that can apparently hit me when I'm legitimately ten body lengths away from him (apparently twirling around grants you the ability to psychically chop people twenty yards away...who knew?).

I eventually take out Madawc. Okay, good. I can breath easier. No more axes. Down to "jumping guy" and "whirlwind guy"...I got this!

Korlic jumps and leaps with incredible ability and timing to my arrows. I shoot he leaps. I hit him maybe a third of the time. At this point, Durga's body starts to decompose because the fight has been going on so long. I also begin to realize I probably should have been a little less cocky and more liberal with the mana/healing potions I left scattered around the summit before the fight started, as Durga's death equates to no more insight weapon, which equates to losing mana and my fire/frozen arrows (or at least the ability to shoot at will).

But suddenly, I time a Korlic jump perfectly and cap him right in the body with a perfect fire arrow. Boom! Bodyshot! Dead!

Okay, down to me and Talic. One on One...I'm not scared of anyone one on one. It's done. My body and mind lose the tension that had been gathering.

I hit this guy with at least a dozen immolation arrows. Something is wrong....he's not going down! So (keep in mind this is all happening with his crazy fast whirlwind attacks attempting to kill me) I conclude that maybe he doesn't take damage when he's in the middle of his whirlwind? Okay...I can time the end of his whirlwind and shoot at the end. I do so multiple times...but no death? How is this possible? I check his label on the screen....nothing indicating immunity to fire damage. Nothing that says "stone skin" (2xs hit points IIRC). WTF IS GOING ON MY IMMOLATION ABILITY IS LITERALLY MAXED OUT HE SHOULD BE DEAD AS DIRT BY NOW I LITERALLY MELTED MEPHISTO AND DIABLO 10X EASIER THAN THIS!

I come to the conclusion that he's fire immune and I'm somehow missing the label that says so (although how can you miss it? It's bright red). Okay fine...I knew I was going to eventually have to deal with fire immunes, which is why I'm building a secondary skill in ice. So I start to switch it up to cold damage...but wait....I have TWO mana and TWO health pots left. No way to revive Dumb Durga without starting the battle over again via town portal. I have Talic. With apparent fire immunity and probably not much damage done (if he was immune, since I'd been using fire arrows). And two mana/health pots.

I use up the mana pots with quickness. He's still not dead. He eventually catches me at the end of his whirlwind. Got to use the health pots, since I don't have any health regeneration on my gear....I'm screwed! No more health pots! I got 700 hit points to play with. No redos. No regenerating health. Nothing.

Well, I have mana regeneration on my gear. I say to myself...if I'm going down I'm making it as hard as possible for him...and I started to run. And dance. And move in and around the pillars, slowly letting my mana get high enough to shoot him with a frozen arrow or two at the end of his whirlwind attack. I do this loop at least 50 times, probably closer to 100.

I'm at the end of the line....somehow there is a bit of distance between us. I move back...he whirlwinds while I continue to move back. I fire the frozen arrow with the last of my being....a wing and a prayer. My resolve/battery is at 5 percent, max.

BAM! Right into his melon head. Dead. The smoke shoots up and his spirit returns to the statue. It's over. They say their usual bullshit. I tell them to fuck off and immediately portal back to town. I revive and start screaming at Dumb Durga for missing approximately 99.99 percent of the fight.

We eventually make it to the Worldstone waypoint with ease (thank God it was a quick map, I had < 0 patience left at this point) and I close out the night.

I ended the battle with one antidote pot. Zero health pots. Zero mana pots. 202 arrows (I started with 500). At least four times I dipped below 50 health. Twice I dipped below 20.

I have absolutely no idea WTF happened with Talic, but that was unbelievably brutal. It has to be fire immunity doesn't it? How the fuck could he take so much damage if he didn't? The D2 Wiki says he has about 12K hit points. I don't remember off-hand how much my immolation arrows do, but it has to be at least 500. And this idiot tanked like 100 of them at least. WTF!

Incidentally, how stupid are the Ancients?

We won't stop Baal from entering the chamber, because he has a special item that allows anyone to bypass us, the item that we created to make it easier for heroes to enter the chamber to protect it, even though we fought our hardest to stop the current hero from entering the chamber to stop Baal from corrupting the Worldstone.

What?

Edit: I've gotten everyone but the Necromancer through. The Sorceress did a solid job and the Barbarian actually did better than expectations. The Druid actually took a death (glass cannon syndrome), but crushed when I focused and played a bit more intentionally. IDK what I'm going to do with the Necromancer though in terms of tactics. No corpses and no skeletons and no ability to town portal for a war of attrition and HP nibbling = no bueno.

I'm still puzzled as to what happened with the Amazon though.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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PhutureDynasty wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2023 4:59 pm
You gotta better chance of Gheed giving you fair price for an item than you do of finding IK armor.
This morning, I did a few runs and character leveling to get everyone into the low 70s before starting hell.

I had a bunch of random solid or better low to mid game gear. I'll always drop that stuff off in "free drops" games to help anyone who is building a new character. Pretty normal. Sometimes even "elite" gear that overlaps with what I already have or is otherwise not likely to be in my future builds.

As I was walking to my usual spot to throw the gear to the ground, a barbarian (level 80 something) throws down the IK armor! And I'm the closest one to him. I run like a nut to it and click (hit the button on my controller).

.........

.........

"I am overburdened"

I rush to throw away an eight slot axe or six slot armor....and in the interim someone else swoops in and grabs it.

:L :L :L :L :L

Moral of the story: Don't help people with free gear and leech off of people that help without contributing anything like 90 percent of these guys do.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by PhutureDynasty »

Bush4Ever. wrote: Sun Jul 09, 2023 3:08 pm
PhutureDynasty wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2023 4:59 pm
You gotta better chance of Gheed giving you fair price for an item than you do of finding IK armor.
This morning, I did a few runs and character leveling to get everyone into the low 70s before starting hell.

I had a bunch of random solid or better low to mid game gear. I'll always drop that stuff off in "free drops" games to help anyone who is building a new character. Pretty normal. Sometimes even "elite" gear that overlaps with what I already have or is otherwise not likely to be in my future builds.

As I was walking to my usual spot to throw the gear to the ground, a barbarian (level 80 something) throws down the IK armor! And I'm the closest one to him. I run like a nut to it and click (hit the button on my controller).

.........

.........

"I am overburdened"

I rush to throw away an eight slot axe or six slot armor....and in the interim someone else swoops in and grabs it.

:L :L :L :L :L

Moral of the story: Don't help people with free gear and leech off of people that help without contributing anything like 90 percent of these guys do.
Lol. Shit like that happens. What are the odds it's the IK armor though? The most sought after piece of the best Barb set.

Shout out to the man for being a bro and dropping decent gear.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by PhutureDynasty »

Have you done any PVP, Bush?
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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PhutureDynasty wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 3:26 pm Have you don't any PVP, Bush?
Not yet. I know some people say that's in-effect the real "endgame" (along with treasure hunting new and better gear).
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by PhutureDynasty »

Bush4Ever. wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 3:31 pm
PhutureDynasty wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 3:26 pm Have you don't any PVP, Bush?
Not yet. I know some people say that's in-effect the real "endgame" (along with treasure hunting new and better gear).
True. It's the end goal if that's what you enjoy.

When I was younger making a great dueler what it was for me but as I grew older I was more in it for the quest to get a near perfect PVM build by MFing and trading. I enjoy grinding Andy and Mephisto MF runs much more than I do joining a toxic duel lobby with a bunch of jabronis.

Plus, it's hard to monitor whether the person you're dueling is using health potions during the duel or absorbing certain damage you do to them for their health. Both of which were considered "bad-mannered" back when I used to duel a lot (mid 2000s).
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by Bush4Ever. »

Yes, I think I'm of a similar mind.

It's getting tougher to find better gear over and above my current gear for characters, which makes sense the more up the ladder you go, so to speak.

My Paladin is fully decked out with "best in slot" items, but everyone else has some gaps (although everyone also has about two or three viable endgame slots filled as well, for some reason in online I had the magic touch with gloves and boots, which are basically finished for everyone).

I'm aiming for "viable to complete Hell in a reasonable way" standard, more than true optimization, which would require a lot more studying and runs to find drops with ridiculous rates, etc...

The only thing at this point I need to really beef up before taking everyone into hell (I'm grinding to get them into the low 70s before starting hell) are resistances post-hell penalty. I might feel differently after I've decided on final builds for them (only the Barb has been respeced at all to-date, and that was mostly to move to a complete whirlwind build and club mastery instead of the original sword mastery I chose).

I will say...this game keeps me engaged. That's rare for me after so many hours of playing.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by PhutureDynasty »

Bush4Ever. wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 4:05 pm Yes, I think I'm of a similar mind.

It's getting tougher to find better gear over and above my current gear for characters, which makes sense the more up the ladder you go, so to speak.

My Paladin is fully decked out with "best in slot" items, but everyone else has some gaps (although everyone also has about two or three viable endgame slots filled as well, for some reason in online I had the magic touch with gloves and boots, which are basically finished for everyone).

I'm aiming for "viable to complete Hell in a reasonable way" standard, more than true optimization, which would require a lot more studying and runs to find drops with ridiculous rates, etc...

The only thing at this point I need to really beef up before taking everyone into hell (I'm grinding to get them into the low 70s before starting hell) are resistances post-hell penalty. I might feel differently after I've decided on final builds for them (only the Barb has been respeced at all to-date, and that was mostly to move to a complete whirlwind build and club mastery instead of the original sword mastery I chose).

I will say...this game keeps me engaged. That's rare for me after so many hours of playing.
Absolutely.

The beauty of Diablo 2 is the variety in experience.

A playthrough with a Sorceress is totally different than a Paladin which is totally different than a Barbarian, etc etc.

Same quests sure, but totally different play-styles and areas of weakness vs strength.

It's a lovely game for being released 23 years ago.

My personal GOAT game.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by Bush4Ever. »

The much awaited update:

All characters finished nightmare difficulty and are currently in Act 2 Hell about to enter the Arcane Sanctuary, Paladin almost level 90 (but done with the story), and everyone else level 76 or 77.

Recently have gotten some great gear from terrorized Mephisto runs and some trades and a pickup or two from free games. Most everyone except my Assassin has core gear (weapon, armor, boots, gloves, helm, belt) that are strongly endgame viable, and everyone also has a few best-in-slot items. My mercs are about 90 percent of the way finished as well.

I thought I would have to respec in hell mode, but I haven't so far outside the Assassin. Current builds are:

Paladin: Hammerdin
Sorceress: Fireball/Frozen Orb hybrid
Amazon: Freezing Arrow/Immolation Arrow hybrid
Druid: Fire (alternating between Armageddon and Volcano for fire immunes)
Barbarian: Whirlwind
Necromancer: I don't know what the name would be, but basically decrypt + corpse explosion + modest (up to 6) skeleton and golem summoning (my merc has a magnificent weapon and kills a lot of enemies, triggering a lot of CE events)
Assassin: Dragon Tail, although I didn't realize you needed claws for this (I only have two Jade Talons...it seems like great claws basically never drop).

I haven't died in Hell yet, and pretty much everyone is coasting through except the Assassin, who has a fairly hard time with crowd control situations, although I've been getting better with mind blast to help in that regard. My plan is to ride the current builds as long as they hold, and respec once it gets too hard (if it does). I have all my respecs for every character except my Paladin and Assassin, who only have one, but I also have four Tokens of Absolution, earned by my Paladin.

The Assassin is the only thing left to really build up. I have one unique claw (Firelizard's Talons), but my Jade Talons make up about 90 points (pre-hell penalty) of resistances. So I'm trying to balance that out against upping my offense with actual claws (and the talons are kind of shit, only +1 to martial arts abilities).

I think Ancients Hell is going to be the real, hardest test in the game, since you can't do a catch-my-breath (or revive your merc) with town portal abuse. I've been saving full rejuvenation potions in anticipation for this fight...I'll scatter them around the mountaintop before the fight starts.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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Bush4Ever. wrote: Sun Jul 30, 2023 10:11 pm The much awaited update:

All characters finished nightmare difficulty and are currently in Act 2 Hell about to enter the Arcane Sanctuary, Paladin almost level 90 (but done with the story), and everyone else level 76 or 77.

Recently have gotten some great gear from terrorized Mephisto runs and some trades and a pickup or two from free games. Most everyone except my Assassin has core gear (weapon, armor, boots, gloves, helm, belt) that are strongly endgame viable, and everyone also has a few best-in-slot items. My mercs are about 90 percent of the way finished as well.

I thought I would have to respec in hell mode, but I haven't so far outside the Assassin. Current builds are:

Paladin: Hammerdin
Sorceress: Fireball/Frozen Orb hybrid
Amazon: Freezing Arrow/Immolation Arrow hybrid
Druid: Fire (alternating between Armageddon and Volcano for fire immunes)
Barbarian: Whirlwind
Necromancer: I don't know what the name would be, but basically decrypt + corpse explosion + modest (up to 6) skeleton and golem summoning (my merc has a magnificent weapon and kills a lot of enemies, triggering a lot of CE events)
Assassin: Dragon Tail, although I didn't realize you needed claws for this (I only have two Jade Talons...it seems like great claws basically never drop).

I haven't died in Hell yet, and pretty much everyone is coasting through except the Assassin, who has a fairly hard time with crowd control situations, although I've been getting better with mind blast to help in that regard. My plan is to ride the current builds as long as they hold, and respec once it gets too hard (if it does). I have all my respecs for every character except my Paladin and Assassin, who only have one, but I also have four Tokens of Absolution, earned by my Paladin.

The Assassin is the only thing left to really build up. I have one unique claw (Firelizard's Talons), but my Jade Talons make up about 90 points (pre-hell penalty) of resistances. So I'm trying to balance that out against upping my offense with actual claws (and the talons are kind of shit, only +1 to martial arts abilities).

I think Ancients Hell is going to be the real, hardest test in the game, since you can't do a catch-my-breath (or revive your merc) with town portal abuse. I've been saving full rejuvenation potions in anticipation for this fight...I'll scatter them around the mountaintop before the fight starts.
Awesome post.

I am happy you're able to enjoy it and it's going fairly smoothly.

What's the barb wearing? Still IK?
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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No IK yet (I only saw it once in that free drop game that I didn't successfully pick up). It's the last piece I need, and honestly I'm not even sure I'd switch to the set if/when I get it until I've beaten hell mode.

I made a Chains-of-Honor off an Ornate Plate last week, which is what I'm using for the barb armor atm. Not precisely the best armor, but very good. I'm actually leeching 21 percent health from my weapons plus armor now. His merc is one of the few I need to find a better piece of armor though...he's still using Atma's Wail. Most everyone else is using Duriel's Shell and a helm of the Vamp Gaze/Tal Mask/Andariel's Visage variety.

I had actually been using Silks of the Victor since I think Act 4 normal. Great upgrade. I hated to switch it, because that armor looks absolutely gorgeous both at the character and inventory screens. But I did the right thing and tossed it in a free game.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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Bush4Ever. wrote: Sun Jul 30, 2023 10:43 pm No IK yet (I only saw it once in that free drop game that I didn't successfully pick up). It's the last piece I need, and honestly I'm not even sure I'd switch to the set if/when I get it until I've beaten hell mode.

I made a Chains-of-Honor off an Ornate Plate last week, which is what I'm using for the barb armor atm. Not precisely the best armor, but very good. I'm actually leeching 21 percent health from my weapons plus armor now. His merc is one of the few I need to find a better piece of armor though...he's still using Atma's Wail. Most everyone else is using Duriel's Shell and a helm of the Vamp Gaze/Tal Mask/Andariel's Visage variety.

I had actually been using Silks of the Victor since I think Act 4 normal. Great upgrade. I hated to switch it, because that armor looks absolutely gorgeous both at the character and inventory screens. But I did the right thing and tossed it in a free game.
Image

Smart to give back.

The Gods will hopefully reward your generosity with some good karma MF drops later.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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I've been working since 4 so I took a coding break to do an experience run (I like to level off all my non-Paladin characters to a common level at a common point in the game so no one gets too far behind or ahead) to get my Sorc from level 76 to level 78 (my Amazon is at like 77.8 so everyone will meet at 78) in the Canyon of the Magi.

I took my first death in hell from a gigantic group of spear-chucking hell slingers (?) in the Canyon of the Magi. I've been getting a little too comfy just blasting with my Sorc and not moving with teleport, and she took approximately 20 spears straight to the dome piece in a two second window. Dead.

I got the body back though, at least it was an easy pickup so I didn't lose *that* much. But that situation (honestly about 15 such enemies and IIRC at least 3 unique/champions all throwing shit at once) was ridiculous. I know you have to be comfortable with not killing every enemy in hell mode, but it was still nuts.

But she's level 77 now so I can equip Kira's Guardian. No more resistance problem. Unfortunately, it trades off against losing 100 something HP from losing my H-Crest, putting her HP somewhere in the mid 800s, which is not nice. But my Amazon is getting the H-Crest now, so she bumps up to almost 1K HP, and only loses knockback and (now unneeded) strength from her giant skull helm.

This was an autistic post for sure. But it is what it is.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

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Bush4Ever. wrote: Tue Aug 01, 2023 10:46 am I've been working since 4 so I took a coding break to do an experience run (I like to level off all my non-Paladin characters to a common level at a common point in the game so no one gets too far behind or ahead) to get my Sorc from level 76 to level 78 (my Amazon is at like 77.8 so everyone will meet at 78) in the Canyon of the Magi.

I took my first death in hell from a gigantic group of spear-chucking hell slingers (?) in the Canyon of the Magi. I've been getting a little too comfy just blasting with my Sorc and not moving with teleport, and she took approximately 20 spears straight to the dome piece in a two second window. Dead.

I got the body back though, at least it was an easy pickup so I didn't lose *that* much. But that situation (honestly about 15 such enemies and IIRC at least 3 unique/champions all throwing shit at once) was ridiculous. I know you have to be comfortable with not killing every enemy in hell mode, but it was still nuts.

But she's level 77 now so I can equip Kira's Guardian. No more resistance problem. Unfortunately, it trades off against losing 100 something HP from losing my H-Crest, putting her HP somewhere in the mid 800s, which is not nice. But my Amazon is getting the H-Crest now, so she bumps up to almost 1K HP, and only loses knockback and (now unneeded) strength from her giant skull helm.

This was an autistic post for sure. But it is what it is.
Didn't even make a dent on the Autism Richter Scale.

Those little blow-dart fucks in the 2nd level of the Durance of Hate before you fight Mephisto were always the bane of my existence on slower builds without teleport.

I've been caught by them and there attacks slow you so before you can scurry away... it's like running through mud.

Probably my most embarrassing moment ever on Diablo 2 was I was rushing a bunch of lower levels through Act 4 on normal with a somewhat high level barbarian (low 70s maybe) and one of those Oblivion Knights (may have been Lord De Seis) killed me during the run because they nuked my armor with a spell while I was half paying attention click spamming.

Definitely good for a few lols amongst the party.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by Bush4Ever. »

Really annoyed right now.

Everyone just finished the Betrayal of Harrogath, so it's just The Ancients and Baal left to beat. Currently level 81 with everyone, ranging from about 81.2 to 81.4 or so.

I get myself pumped to start the day by getting my Sorceress through the Ancients to the Worldstone waypoint.

I've been saving full rejuvs since the start of Act 1 normal in anticipation of this fight, so I have a bunch. I throw about half my stock on the ground of the summit, along with super heals and super mans. Why not? This is literally what I saved them for, right?

I start the fight....and the game freezes. Crash.

Half my full rejuvs. Gone from a crash.

I get pissed and try again, this time keep my full rejuvs on my person and scattering just full heals/manas.

I get maybe a quarter into what would be the full fight...and the game freezes. Crash.

I don't know why the game crashes so much on the Ancients. This happened when I was offline as well. Everything else in the game has basically ran smoothly, and I've upgraded my internet recently (not for this)...it's annoying.

The brief fight I did have with the Ancients gave me a peak into how difficult this is going to be without my Paladin. I want to give it the honest try with my gear/abilities solely from my Sorc playthrough, but I'm considering loading up with my best merc weapon (currently with my Necro's merc), and maybe seeing if I can cheeze the fight if it's too hard. I'm not going to bang my head against a wall forever and ever.
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Bush4Ever.
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Re: Bush's Diablo 2 Thread

Post by Bush4Ever. »

Everyone has gone through the Ancients and everyone except the Assassin has beaten Hell Baal.

I only took a single death on the Ancients, with the Sorceress, after getting a little bit too close attempting to static field the one guy who happened to have double immunity to fire/cold.

No one has died to Baal yet, although my Fire Druid took a longgggg time to beat him. My Necromancer is basically invincible against Baal through max level decrypt, Fire Golem+Bone Spear+Merc with Insight.

My mercenaries are almost all able to equip the Colossus Voulge Insights I've made/found, some of which are ethereal and crazy strong. Of course, it's basically moot now, but still.

After my Assassin beats Baal the plan is to level the Assassin/Barbarian/Druid/Necromancer/Amazon to level 83 (currently about 82.5), level my Paladin to level 90 (he's like half a bar away atm), and then focus on the Sorceress to farm and build...maybe stopping at level 90 or so, ultimately.

It's kind of crazy I barely had to respec with anyone, and that I also have all my Charsi/Socket quests from all three modes still left to play with to min/max characters (minus my Paladin).

Going forward it's mostly going to be bringing my Sorceress up and making incremental improvements to everyone based off whatever gear I find going forward with her.

I actually have some great gear I didn't even use.
Dracul's gloves.
Two Harlequin's Crests.
Stormshield.
Aldur's Advance.
Sandstorm Trek boots.
Windforce
Thunderstroke x 2.
Full Trag' Oul Set
Nearly Full Immortal King Set
Nearly Full Natalya's Set
Nearly Full Tal Rasha Set

And probably more I'm not remembering.

So basically, I'm finishing anything that could be call the "real" game and am almost completely into full-on autismo endgame mode right now. I guess the Ubers are the last superboss challenge.
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