07-30-2003, 12:04 AM
I've run through act5 hell with a few trial characters. Two attempts at a frenzy barb did alright but inevitably landed in serious trouble and died because I lack the patience to play 1.10 CD1 style (i.e. string 'em out against walls/obstacles and kill one by one) all of the time.
I had a reasonably time running through with a 1-point in vengance paladin, but with gear that I'm sure I will never see during my play on the realms (don't have as much time to play as I used to).
I may as well have been playing in a party since I was using three paladin auras (defiance from runeword shield, holy freeze type merc, and mid-pumped conviction), two sorceress skills (static from merc's runeword weapon, teleport from runeword armor), two barbarian warcries (battle command and battle orders from runeword switch weapon), a necro curse (lifetap from runeword shield), a necro combat skill (lvl 20 poison nova from runeword weapon), and a druid combat skill (tornado from unique ring - ok that didn't make much of a difference).
The combination of skills from all the classes except assasin and amazon in a single character was pretty potent. Slvl 1 Vengance took down everything reasonably fast (though I used /players 5 to reduce boredom); the mana pool from items and charms lasted long enough to finish off several stone skin minibosses without needing a potion or mana leach (had some damage to mana modifiers that helped). Hell resists of 85 fire, 80 cold, 80 lightning, 75 poison and some -MDR, combined with 20k defence (maxed holy shield + defiance from runeword), 75% block chance (after HS), and the mercs Holy Freeze aura made tanking large groups of enemies feasable (even the dreaded groups of ranged attackers). As soon as lifetap kicks in, the paladin and the act2 merc were worry free.
On that single run I found Stormshield from Nilhatlak and Tal's armor from Baal. Items that are nearly impossible for me to find in 1.09 with my playtime.
I'm sure untwinked ladder play in hell will be a huge headache for me. I guarantee I'll be looking for good cooperative parties.
I had a reasonably time running through with a 1-point in vengance paladin, but with gear that I'm sure I will never see during my play on the realms (don't have as much time to play as I used to).
I may as well have been playing in a party since I was using three paladin auras (defiance from runeword shield, holy freeze type merc, and mid-pumped conviction), two sorceress skills (static from merc's runeword weapon, teleport from runeword armor), two barbarian warcries (battle command and battle orders from runeword switch weapon), a necro curse (lifetap from runeword shield), a necro combat skill (lvl 20 poison nova from runeword weapon), and a druid combat skill (tornado from unique ring - ok that didn't make much of a difference).
The combination of skills from all the classes except assasin and amazon in a single character was pretty potent. Slvl 1 Vengance took down everything reasonably fast (though I used /players 5 to reduce boredom); the mana pool from items and charms lasted long enough to finish off several stone skin minibosses without needing a potion or mana leach (had some damage to mana modifiers that helped). Hell resists of 85 fire, 80 cold, 80 lightning, 75 poison and some -MDR, combined with 20k defence (maxed holy shield + defiance from runeword), 75% block chance (after HS), and the mercs Holy Freeze aura made tanking large groups of enemies feasable (even the dreaded groups of ranged attackers). As soon as lifetap kicks in, the paladin and the act2 merc were worry free.
On that single run I found Stormshield from Nilhatlak and Tal's armor from Baal. Items that are nearly impossible for me to find in 1.09 with my playtime.
I'm sure untwinked ladder play in hell will be a huge headache for me. I guarantee I'll be looking for good cooperative parties.