09-20-2005, 01:30 AM
I now faced a rather impossible task. How to do bloodraven?
There is no way for me to target a skeleton so it will go after a specific monster I want it to. I would need to clear out all the zombies from the graveyard first so I can concentrate just on bloodraven alone. Even then I would need several skeletons in a row to do battle as bloodraven knocked them down one after another.
The first plan of attack was to round up all of the extra skeletons and zombies in the graveyard into a central spot near the entrance. With all the bodies in one place, I could easily run back and make a quick new skeleton for myself whenever the one I currently had would fall. Two problems happened with this idea. First, the bodies I had collected near the entrance would evaporate after a few minutes leaving me with no way of generating new skeleton for myself without another return trip to Favie. Second, bloodraven was able to make new zombies at a faster pace than I was able to dispatch them and I quickly got swarmed again.
Well, some of you reading now might have already guessed my trick. http://www.itwillneverhappen.com/diablo/...hot019.jpg
The restrictions I placed on myself only said I would never put points into the summoning tree. Everything else is fair game I figure. The skill shrine effectively tripled my killing rate and thus was able to keep up (just barely) with the flow that bloodraven was throwing at me.
It was still a bit tricky. Round up some bodies by the entrance. Go grab the skill shrine and chug a stamina pot as I ran like mad toward the graveyard. On my way in, quickly revive two more bodies. Get in a few hits on bloodraven before the skill shrine ran out. A fast trip to town to restock on red pots. Round up another group of bodies at the entrance and start all over again. Thankfully the skill shrine took about the same length of time to regenerate as I was spending in the graveyard.
On the fourth trip in I wasn't able to get back out again with my skeleton intact. So I had to make yet another trip back to Favie. By this time I had lured at least 1/3 of the stuff in the blood more over to her. If I ran out of stuff to lure before I was able to get a merc I wasn't sure how I would be able to continue.
Progress was slow, but bloodraven wasn't regenerating. Slowly, bit by bit, I was whittling her down. After the 11th trip to the graveyard I was in town restocking my health potions when Akara sold me exactly what I needed. A +1 raise skeleton / +1 skeletal mastery wand. It left me with less than 1,000 gold remaining to buy more health potions with, but I got the wand anyway.
The next trip into the graveyard I rushed in like gangbusters. Three skeletons that were each individually charged up with 3 points in skeletal mastery made quick work of bloodraven. I accomplished more on that one trip than all of my other trips put together.
However, the skill shrine ran out before I finished the job. So I had to do one more circuit through before I was done. http://www.itwillneverhappen.com/diablo/...hot026.jpg
Kyoko joined up with me. Phawlmawth gave her a stern lecture about peace and harmony and never harming another living thing. But Kyoko didn't listen. Oh well, as long as he wasn't killing anything himself, his conscious was clear and he could sleep at night.
With some more firepower backing me up I could finaly take on that pesky cold archer pack at the entrance to the cave. I drop down inside and my merc instantly gets slaughtered.
What in the world? Son of a ..... but I had no time. The archers were now blasting away at me and my life ball was dropping fast. I punched franticly at the keyboard drinking as many red posts as I could as I made a desperate run for the entrance. Well, actually it was more a slow mosey more than I run. Why had I not bothered to stock my belt with thawing pots? Shesh, I just don't have any experience with playing hardcore.
I did manage to make it back to the cave entrance. But with just the barest sliver of life left. That was a close one! I wonder if Im even going to make it to the end of act 1 if Im messing up like this.
I was now faced with an ethical dilemma. Revive Kyoko or not? As peace loving as Phawlmawth is, Im sure he would not willingly want to be hanging aroudn with someone who didn't agree with his strict moral code. However, to return someoen to the land of the living once more, especially since Phawlmawth was partially responsible for getting her killed anyway, is very much in alignment with Phawlmawth's ideology. In the end I decided to bring back Kyoko. Not for ethics, but simply because I knew I wasn't skillful enough at playing hardcore to ever get far without her.
Back into the cave again, this time with some thawing pots, and I made one more go at the archer pack. Thankfully my last trip in, only a few of them had followed me as I ran for the entrance. This had split up the pack slightly and I was just barely able to hang on to victory!
The rest of the cave was boring after that. About halfway through clearing the place, I got to level 6 and put a point into dim vision. Oh yummy. Things were going so much faster now. No more having to tank fallen shaman. No more strategic reserves of bodies to pull skeletons out of. Just run right in and splatter the walls with everything that comes near me. Wheee!
With the cave cleared, and a merc by my side able to generate fresh bodies for me, I no longer needed help from Favie. Back to the blood more I tidied up the area completing a full clear to to this point. Time for a rest now I think.
There is no way for me to target a skeleton so it will go after a specific monster I want it to. I would need to clear out all the zombies from the graveyard first so I can concentrate just on bloodraven alone. Even then I would need several skeletons in a row to do battle as bloodraven knocked them down one after another.
The first plan of attack was to round up all of the extra skeletons and zombies in the graveyard into a central spot near the entrance. With all the bodies in one place, I could easily run back and make a quick new skeleton for myself whenever the one I currently had would fall. Two problems happened with this idea. First, the bodies I had collected near the entrance would evaporate after a few minutes leaving me with no way of generating new skeleton for myself without another return trip to Favie. Second, bloodraven was able to make new zombies at a faster pace than I was able to dispatch them and I quickly got swarmed again.
Well, some of you reading now might have already guessed my trick. http://www.itwillneverhappen.com/diablo/...hot019.jpg
The restrictions I placed on myself only said I would never put points into the summoning tree. Everything else is fair game I figure. The skill shrine effectively tripled my killing rate and thus was able to keep up (just barely) with the flow that bloodraven was throwing at me.
It was still a bit tricky. Round up some bodies by the entrance. Go grab the skill shrine and chug a stamina pot as I ran like mad toward the graveyard. On my way in, quickly revive two more bodies. Get in a few hits on bloodraven before the skill shrine ran out. A fast trip to town to restock on red pots. Round up another group of bodies at the entrance and start all over again. Thankfully the skill shrine took about the same length of time to regenerate as I was spending in the graveyard.
On the fourth trip in I wasn't able to get back out again with my skeleton intact. So I had to make yet another trip back to Favie. By this time I had lured at least 1/3 of the stuff in the blood more over to her. If I ran out of stuff to lure before I was able to get a merc I wasn't sure how I would be able to continue.
Progress was slow, but bloodraven wasn't regenerating. Slowly, bit by bit, I was whittling her down. After the 11th trip to the graveyard I was in town restocking my health potions when Akara sold me exactly what I needed. A +1 raise skeleton / +1 skeletal mastery wand. It left me with less than 1,000 gold remaining to buy more health potions with, but I got the wand anyway.
The next trip into the graveyard I rushed in like gangbusters. Three skeletons that were each individually charged up with 3 points in skeletal mastery made quick work of bloodraven. I accomplished more on that one trip than all of my other trips put together.
However, the skill shrine ran out before I finished the job. So I had to do one more circuit through before I was done. http://www.itwillneverhappen.com/diablo/...hot026.jpg
Kyoko joined up with me. Phawlmawth gave her a stern lecture about peace and harmony and never harming another living thing. But Kyoko didn't listen. Oh well, as long as he wasn't killing anything himself, his conscious was clear and he could sleep at night.
With some more firepower backing me up I could finaly take on that pesky cold archer pack at the entrance to the cave. I drop down inside and my merc instantly gets slaughtered.
What in the world? Son of a ..... but I had no time. The archers were now blasting away at me and my life ball was dropping fast. I punched franticly at the keyboard drinking as many red posts as I could as I made a desperate run for the entrance. Well, actually it was more a slow mosey more than I run. Why had I not bothered to stock my belt with thawing pots? Shesh, I just don't have any experience with playing hardcore.
I did manage to make it back to the cave entrance. But with just the barest sliver of life left. That was a close one! I wonder if Im even going to make it to the end of act 1 if Im messing up like this.
I was now faced with an ethical dilemma. Revive Kyoko or not? As peace loving as Phawlmawth is, Im sure he would not willingly want to be hanging aroudn with someone who didn't agree with his strict moral code. However, to return someoen to the land of the living once more, especially since Phawlmawth was partially responsible for getting her killed anyway, is very much in alignment with Phawlmawth's ideology. In the end I decided to bring back Kyoko. Not for ethics, but simply because I knew I wasn't skillful enough at playing hardcore to ever get far without her.
Back into the cave again, this time with some thawing pots, and I made one more go at the archer pack. Thankfully my last trip in, only a few of them had followed me as I ran for the entrance. This had split up the pack slightly and I was just barely able to hang on to victory!
The rest of the cave was boring after that. About halfway through clearing the place, I got to level 6 and put a point into dim vision. Oh yummy. Things were going so much faster now. No more having to tank fallen shaman. No more strategic reserves of bodies to pull skeletons out of. Just run right in and splatter the walls with everything that comes near me. Wheee!
With the cave cleared, and a merc by my side able to generate fresh bodies for me, I no longer needed help from Favie. Back to the blood more I tidied up the area completing a full clear to to this point. Time for a rest now I think.