10-20-2003, 08:30 PM
Well, time for my third Tale, is it? Getting tired of them? Bah, what do you know any way? Well, itâs time to present my paladin. I canât remember what his name was, so Iâll call him Varkreth. The Ever Changing Book of Names is so cool. Better than another Final Fantasy rip off or something. Same old names; lifted from cheap books or worse. What an unique, and in flavor name for a character? Go to http://ebon.uni.cc for the shareware version. Even has Viking for you next Barb! Where was I? Oh, yes. The paladin. For everything pre-act 5, assume Iâm using Diablo 2 version 1.04. And know that I bought the crap âofficial strategy guideâ. No real strategy besides what Blizzard says. If youâre ever going to buy a strategy guide, buy only a Versus Book or from Nintendo Power. Where was I? Oh, yes, Varkreth.
Act 1, Normal: Repent, damn you, repent!
Having read the afore mentioned âstrategy guideâ, and some Inquest, I deduced that Thorns is the most powerful aura in the game. For every 1 point of damage I take, the enemy takes 1000 in return? Bring it on! I also wanted to try out Fist of the Heavens, so I also decided to put one point in itâs prerequisites. I booted up, and said a nice hello to Warriv, and headed straight to the Den of Evil this time. Whacked the Quill Rat (Billy) on the way. Before I got there, I gained a skill point and learned Smite. I like smiting. I love the word. I love the skill in D&D. But instead of being a badass skill of rightesous, it ended up being a The Bitch Slap of Justice. Crap damage, but itâs cheap, fast, and has a cool animation. Watch as Varkreth bitch slaps the quill rat with his shield! Watch the quill rat recoil in pain! Watch the pretty birdies swirl around its head! Hmmâ¦I wonder if one of the programmers was a fan of Chuck Jones? But why bitch slap when you can just smack with a sword? After leaving the Den (why canât the fallen just show up at the entrance? Why do I have to track the one that got away?) I had two skill points to use. That includes the reward. I used them for Sacrifice and Might. Sacrifice is weird. Fist, Varkreth slaps the enemy, now he coats his sword with his own blood. And I thought my barb was nuts. But Might, now thereâs a neat skill. I canât remember, but wasnât it the only aura that increased damage? Whatever. I planned on playing Varkreth like a Diablo 1 Warrior. No tricks. La, la, la. Time to kill Blood Raven! I went in with a point in Thorns. I love that skill. Nothing like standing in a middle of a Carver Camp, doing nothing, and watching them die like flies. Great fun! I also added a point to Holy Bolt. I remember Holy Bolt from D1. Leoricâs worst nightmare it was. I was hopeing that the D2 Holy Bolt wound be just as good. It wasnât, and it isnât. There isnât much more to be said about this act. I put every point I got into Thorns, and let my sword do the talking. For any more details about my thoughts on this act, read Tales 1 and 2. You have read them, right? If not, get to it. Andy was much easier this time around. No problems at all.
Act 2, Normal: Double Feature: Attack of the Giant Maggots, and Snake People.
I love act 2. Doesnât have that boring, âletâs get this over withâ feel of act 1. Doesnât have that annoying jungle of act 3, nor the difficulty of act 4. And it always starts with the Sewers. Not that that bothers me much. Besides a few archers, everyone attacks head long into me and dies via Thorns. And I have this nifty Zeal skill. Might try a build based on that next time. And I found this new shield! Steelclash! Yep, my paladin found a paladin shield! What are the odds? (No, I donât want numbers.) So I felt ready for the Maggot Lair. And I was. Thorns didnât help much, but nothing ever does in such a narrow area. Iâm used to it. There isnât much left to say. Thorns does so much. Besides making my own sound effects, not much was new. Until I reached Duriel. Now that was fun! Thorns slaughtered him. Silly bug. The harder he hits, the harder he goes down. And Duriel hits real hard. I didnât even die this time!
Act 3, Normal: Children of Zakarum
Here I am again. The jungle. Time to run through it, stopping only to grab a dead guyâs organs. But something strange happened. Flayers died by the dozen. I love Thorns. I am starting to see a problem form. Thorns only effect melee attacks. Those damned blow dart buggers stay safe from my wrath. Still, I was doing enough damage that the Thorns draw-back wasnât a big problem. If you really need to know what happens for the rest act, try reading Tales of the Single Player part 1 or 2. Really, by this time, Iâm getting jaded, both in the game, and in these writeups. Kill Mephisto, move on.
Act 4, Normal: A Paladin in Hell
Yup. I just learned that I shouldnât have put 20 points into Thorns. The hard way. A pack of Plague Lords surrounded me and they all used Inferno. Ouch. So what do I do? Go back and pick them off one by one. It works. There are very few critters in Act 4 that Thorns works on. Sure, there are Maggots, and Flesh Spawn, and such, but they die easily enough. The time Thorns was effective was with Urders and Smitty. I played Diablo like a hit and run character. Yay me.
Cow Level: Who Wants Stacks?
Funny story about my friends pally. He was running 1.00 and entered Cow Level. The cows hit him and his pally should have died. But no! He died once, reentered, activated Thorns and cows died before they hurt him. He ran into a herd with one HP, and the cows died without him even clicking one them! Amazing! Me, on the otherhandâ¦I had to kill them the old fashion way. Throns did do a lot of work.
Act 5, Normal: Enter the Butcher
A little sidenote before I get started. I started Act 5 after I cleared the Sewers in Act 2, Nightmare. I was level 30, and had a point in Fist of the Heavens and in Salvation. Salvation was good, Fist was not. Not enough damage, Holy Bolts donât clear house, mana costs, and chugging. Not good. Salvation was what I switch too when fighting LEBs. Now, on to Act 5.
Having noted how Fanactism increases attack speed, AR, and damage, I decided to make it my second aura. Since the Bloody Foothills is easy to level in, I quickly had Zeal at 5 and Fanactism at 2. I soon realize I should have done this since the start. I can only imagine how strong I would have been if I designed a Zealot. I picked up a Butcherâs Pupil as well. This is a great weapon. Great normal damage, great increase damage, IAS, and itâs indestructible. But wait, thereâs more! It causes bleeding! Sure, this might not seem like much, but take it into the desert with lepers. Zeal them, they run away bleeding. By the time Iâm done, it looks like a Necro went on a CE party. I highly suggest you pick up this axe today. It made this act a breeze. Every skill point I got went into Fanactism. By new barb merc loved me for it. Every holy knight needs a squire. I did run into one problem. My Steelclash shield wasnât cutting it anymore. I got some runes from that barb guy, and created a runeword shield. Except that this is v1.07 and runewords werenât activated for SP. Yippee skip. I eventually found a nice paladin shield for my blocking needs. I did realize the power of the Zealot build, and started a new character based on this, but I never really did much with him. And I never went anywhere with Varkreth because I knew I made too big of a mistake. I canât remember if I even killed Baal. Sad eh?
Act 1, Normal: Repent, damn you, repent!
Having read the afore mentioned âstrategy guideâ, and some Inquest, I deduced that Thorns is the most powerful aura in the game. For every 1 point of damage I take, the enemy takes 1000 in return? Bring it on! I also wanted to try out Fist of the Heavens, so I also decided to put one point in itâs prerequisites. I booted up, and said a nice hello to Warriv, and headed straight to the Den of Evil this time. Whacked the Quill Rat (Billy) on the way. Before I got there, I gained a skill point and learned Smite. I like smiting. I love the word. I love the skill in D&D. But instead of being a badass skill of rightesous, it ended up being a The Bitch Slap of Justice. Crap damage, but itâs cheap, fast, and has a cool animation. Watch as Varkreth bitch slaps the quill rat with his shield! Watch the quill rat recoil in pain! Watch the pretty birdies swirl around its head! Hmmâ¦I wonder if one of the programmers was a fan of Chuck Jones? But why bitch slap when you can just smack with a sword? After leaving the Den (why canât the fallen just show up at the entrance? Why do I have to track the one that got away?) I had two skill points to use. That includes the reward. I used them for Sacrifice and Might. Sacrifice is weird. Fist, Varkreth slaps the enemy, now he coats his sword with his own blood. And I thought my barb was nuts. But Might, now thereâs a neat skill. I canât remember, but wasnât it the only aura that increased damage? Whatever. I planned on playing Varkreth like a Diablo 1 Warrior. No tricks. La, la, la. Time to kill Blood Raven! I went in with a point in Thorns. I love that skill. Nothing like standing in a middle of a Carver Camp, doing nothing, and watching them die like flies. Great fun! I also added a point to Holy Bolt. I remember Holy Bolt from D1. Leoricâs worst nightmare it was. I was hopeing that the D2 Holy Bolt wound be just as good. It wasnât, and it isnât. There isnât much more to be said about this act. I put every point I got into Thorns, and let my sword do the talking. For any more details about my thoughts on this act, read Tales 1 and 2. You have read them, right? If not, get to it. Andy was much easier this time around. No problems at all.
Act 2, Normal: Double Feature: Attack of the Giant Maggots, and Snake People.
I love act 2. Doesnât have that boring, âletâs get this over withâ feel of act 1. Doesnât have that annoying jungle of act 3, nor the difficulty of act 4. And it always starts with the Sewers. Not that that bothers me much. Besides a few archers, everyone attacks head long into me and dies via Thorns. And I have this nifty Zeal skill. Might try a build based on that next time. And I found this new shield! Steelclash! Yep, my paladin found a paladin shield! What are the odds? (No, I donât want numbers.) So I felt ready for the Maggot Lair. And I was. Thorns didnât help much, but nothing ever does in such a narrow area. Iâm used to it. There isnât much left to say. Thorns does so much. Besides making my own sound effects, not much was new. Until I reached Duriel. Now that was fun! Thorns slaughtered him. Silly bug. The harder he hits, the harder he goes down. And Duriel hits real hard. I didnât even die this time!
Act 3, Normal: Children of Zakarum
Here I am again. The jungle. Time to run through it, stopping only to grab a dead guyâs organs. But something strange happened. Flayers died by the dozen. I love Thorns. I am starting to see a problem form. Thorns only effect melee attacks. Those damned blow dart buggers stay safe from my wrath. Still, I was doing enough damage that the Thorns draw-back wasnât a big problem. If you really need to know what happens for the rest act, try reading Tales of the Single Player part 1 or 2. Really, by this time, Iâm getting jaded, both in the game, and in these writeups. Kill Mephisto, move on.
Act 4, Normal: A Paladin in Hell
Yup. I just learned that I shouldnât have put 20 points into Thorns. The hard way. A pack of Plague Lords surrounded me and they all used Inferno. Ouch. So what do I do? Go back and pick them off one by one. It works. There are very few critters in Act 4 that Thorns works on. Sure, there are Maggots, and Flesh Spawn, and such, but they die easily enough. The time Thorns was effective was with Urders and Smitty. I played Diablo like a hit and run character. Yay me.
Cow Level: Who Wants Stacks?
Funny story about my friends pally. He was running 1.00 and entered Cow Level. The cows hit him and his pally should have died. But no! He died once, reentered, activated Thorns and cows died before they hurt him. He ran into a herd with one HP, and the cows died without him even clicking one them! Amazing! Me, on the otherhandâ¦I had to kill them the old fashion way. Throns did do a lot of work.
Act 5, Normal: Enter the Butcher
A little sidenote before I get started. I started Act 5 after I cleared the Sewers in Act 2, Nightmare. I was level 30, and had a point in Fist of the Heavens and in Salvation. Salvation was good, Fist was not. Not enough damage, Holy Bolts donât clear house, mana costs, and chugging. Not good. Salvation was what I switch too when fighting LEBs. Now, on to Act 5.
Having noted how Fanactism increases attack speed, AR, and damage, I decided to make it my second aura. Since the Bloody Foothills is easy to level in, I quickly had Zeal at 5 and Fanactism at 2. I soon realize I should have done this since the start. I can only imagine how strong I would have been if I designed a Zealot. I picked up a Butcherâs Pupil as well. This is a great weapon. Great normal damage, great increase damage, IAS, and itâs indestructible. But wait, thereâs more! It causes bleeding! Sure, this might not seem like much, but take it into the desert with lepers. Zeal them, they run away bleeding. By the time Iâm done, it looks like a Necro went on a CE party. I highly suggest you pick up this axe today. It made this act a breeze. Every skill point I got went into Fanactism. By new barb merc loved me for it. Every holy knight needs a squire. I did run into one problem. My Steelclash shield wasnât cutting it anymore. I got some runes from that barb guy, and created a runeword shield. Except that this is v1.07 and runewords werenât activated for SP. Yippee skip. I eventually found a nice paladin shield for my blocking needs. I did realize the power of the Zealot build, and started a new character based on this, but I never really did much with him. And I never went anywhere with Varkreth because I knew I made too big of a mistake. I canât remember if I even killed Baal. Sad eh?
