04-28-2003, 12:12 AM
DabbleThrow, my lvl 39 HC solo, untwinked throwing barbarian just reached the nightmare river of flame, and prepared to take on Diablo.
The inspiration for starting Dabble came from a comment in KingOfPain's Throwology guide that double throwing barbs are a lot like bow-using rogues in Diablo. And indeed they are, especially if you don't use a mercenary (which I don't most of the time). They depend on a fast one-on-one attack, and stun (or knockback) for crowd control. The losses are that leap attack is a poor substitute for the D1 rogue's teleport spell, and the short range of throwing weapons is an annoyance. The main gain of throwing barbs is that they're much tougher (far more life and easier resists) than their D1 sisters; in fact given enough life it takes a serious accident to die in D2, even when you lack a shield, unlike the way it was in D1.
Dabble cast battle orders and stepped cautiously into the river of flame. A boss maggot and her mob was on the corridor to the left: the spawners are annoying with no mass killing skills. Hell is going to be a lot worse. Stepping forward to take them out quickly, Dabble took fire from a mob of abyss knights to the right and had to retreat -- a nuisance, since then he had to draw out and kill the knights one or two at a time, and by then there was a mass of maggots to deal with. Only a few maggots found their way around the corner to him, however, and he took out the boss across a lava barrier. After going back to town to repair his weapons (the need for frequent weapon repairs is another way throwbarbs remind me of D1 rogues), he returned and cleared the rest of the river without incident (more maggots, abyss knights, venom lords and flesh spawners -- Dabble could just about kill the children fast enough to get a hit or two in between on the mothers).
I switched weapons to my +2 warcry axe, cast battle orders, and switched back, before approaching the sanctuary for Dabble's first encounter with the oblivion knights. He drew off and killed the doom knights that accompanied them, then went back and picked off the oblivion knights one by one. With his great reserves of life, it turned out Dabble had little to worry about, though he was cautious when hit by the purple bubbles of a lower resistance curse (and he had to quell the barb's inborn fear of iron maiden -- I removed every melee attack from my hot keys before starting to make sure there were no accidents).
Next came a mob of vortex lord champions, who fell with equal speed to Dabble's dancing francisca's. At this point, Dabble's thoughts began to turn to the Dark Lord. Worrying that he didn't have enough full rejuvs, he adding an unused skill point to find potion, and one to find item (just for the hell of it). As it turned out, he needn't have worried: he only found one full rejuv, off an oblivion knight corpse, but in the end he didn't need to drink any of them in his fight against Diablo.
He cleared the sanctuary before opening the seals, chasing down every last one of the green finger mages that the fled from his poison damaging axes. It contained one armor shrine, of no use to Dabble, or almost anyone else for that matter. In between, on his frequent repair trips, Dabble shopped at Halbu for throwing spears: the axes would put him too close to Diablo for his own comfort.
He opened Lord deSeis's seal first: might as well get the worst over with as soon as possible. He hit the seal, and lept across the lava to the open part of the sanctuary (did they really think to trap him in a deadend?) One by one he drew off the minions and killed them, waiting for the lower resist curse to dissipate before returning, until only deSeis was left. Dabble faced him one on one, like a wild west shootout, and deSeis had no chance.
He hit the Vizier's seal and leap away into to open: soon the Vizier and his mob were dead. The Infector's layout was the nice one without the dead end: Dabble killed a few minions that ran at him before returning as if on an elastic string to their master. Then the infector spotted Dabble and came after him, with the rest of his mob. He was as terrifyingly fast, faster than Dabble. Dabble ran through the entire sanctuary with the infector on his heels, out the gate, and lept across a lava river. He then dipatched the last of Diablo's guardians at his leisure.
Time for the final battle. Dabble equipped a rare assualt helmet that meant a loss of 100 life, but gave him maximum protection from fire and lighthing. He replaced his franciscas with throwing spears. They would need frequent repairs, but Dabble could afford to be patient. He could not afford to die.
The ground shook as he opened the last seal, and Dabble cast battle orders. He hit the armor shrine for luck, approached the pentagram, and began to unleash his spears upon Diablo from the edge of the screen. As a river of fire came towards him he ran, drank a greater heling potion, reset, and fired again. He was tempted to stand in Diablo formerly deadly lightning breath, but resisted, even though he was well protected. A string of fire rings allowed a steady stream of spears, then the river of fire forced him to run again. Diablo's health was reduced by a tiny sliver, but Dabble knew he had nothing to fear. He returned to town to repair his spears and buy a few more healing potions.
It was a long and wearing battle, but bit by bit Diablo weakened. There was a final irony though. As Dabble launched the killing spear, Diablo cast his river of flame. The screen froze as Diablo went through his death throws, locking Dabble in the river. When he regained the use of his limbs, Dabble had just a sliver of life left. Wiping his brow, Dbable threw the Sigon's Visor Diablo left him into Halbu's rubbish bin, and turned his thoughts uncertainly to the nightmare ancients.
___________________________________________________
The gory details.
Basic stats (with pluses from items, and 10 stat points remaining):
Str 68+10, Dex 97+1, Vit 100, Eng 10+9
The 68 str allows him to equip the Butcher's pupil cleaver he found (though he's yet to really use it), and the 97 dex allows him to equip war darts (though he's yet to find or buy any half way decent ones).
Base lvl of main skills:
Leap attack 1
Dbl Throw 1
Throw mastery 15
Increased speed 1
Natural resists 3
Battle orders 12
with 4 skill points to distribute (2 of which were distributed during the game).
Main equipment:
Francisca of the bear & soldier's francisca (for double throw)
(+2 warcry throwing axe on the switch to cast battle orders)
For Diablo, switched to
massive throwing spear of slaughter & brutal throwing spear of alacrity
saintly horned helm of the whale (+98 life, +1 increased speed &find item, +3 frenzy),
which gave 629 (1113 with lvl 15 bo) life, and 41/67/59/28 F/C/L/P resists in nm.
For Diablo switched to rare assault helmet socketed with a ral rune for FR,
which gave 531 (939 with bo) life and 72/75/75/28 F/C/L/P resists.
One socket chain mail, gemmed with +3 min da/+20 poison da in 2sec jewel
Hands of broc (all the dual leech he needs)
Rare boots with 10% frw and some resists
Rare heavy belt with 10% fhit rev, 20% cold res, +4 str, 25% poison length reduction
fr/w +res rare ring
4% life steal +24 mana blue ring
+1 barb skills, +3 min da blue ammy
some assorted +res/+life/+cold da charms
The inspiration for starting Dabble came from a comment in KingOfPain's Throwology guide that double throwing barbs are a lot like bow-using rogues in Diablo. And indeed they are, especially if you don't use a mercenary (which I don't most of the time). They depend on a fast one-on-one attack, and stun (or knockback) for crowd control. The losses are that leap attack is a poor substitute for the D1 rogue's teleport spell, and the short range of throwing weapons is an annoyance. The main gain of throwing barbs is that they're much tougher (far more life and easier resists) than their D1 sisters; in fact given enough life it takes a serious accident to die in D2, even when you lack a shield, unlike the way it was in D1.
Dabble cast battle orders and stepped cautiously into the river of flame. A boss maggot and her mob was on the corridor to the left: the spawners are annoying with no mass killing skills. Hell is going to be a lot worse. Stepping forward to take them out quickly, Dabble took fire from a mob of abyss knights to the right and had to retreat -- a nuisance, since then he had to draw out and kill the knights one or two at a time, and by then there was a mass of maggots to deal with. Only a few maggots found their way around the corner to him, however, and he took out the boss across a lava barrier. After going back to town to repair his weapons (the need for frequent weapon repairs is another way throwbarbs remind me of D1 rogues), he returned and cleared the rest of the river without incident (more maggots, abyss knights, venom lords and flesh spawners -- Dabble could just about kill the children fast enough to get a hit or two in between on the mothers).
I switched weapons to my +2 warcry axe, cast battle orders, and switched back, before approaching the sanctuary for Dabble's first encounter with the oblivion knights. He drew off and killed the doom knights that accompanied them, then went back and picked off the oblivion knights one by one. With his great reserves of life, it turned out Dabble had little to worry about, though he was cautious when hit by the purple bubbles of a lower resistance curse (and he had to quell the barb's inborn fear of iron maiden -- I removed every melee attack from my hot keys before starting to make sure there were no accidents).
Next came a mob of vortex lord champions, who fell with equal speed to Dabble's dancing francisca's. At this point, Dabble's thoughts began to turn to the Dark Lord. Worrying that he didn't have enough full rejuvs, he adding an unused skill point to find potion, and one to find item (just for the hell of it). As it turned out, he needn't have worried: he only found one full rejuv, off an oblivion knight corpse, but in the end he didn't need to drink any of them in his fight against Diablo.
He cleared the sanctuary before opening the seals, chasing down every last one of the green finger mages that the fled from his poison damaging axes. It contained one armor shrine, of no use to Dabble, or almost anyone else for that matter. In between, on his frequent repair trips, Dabble shopped at Halbu for throwing spears: the axes would put him too close to Diablo for his own comfort.
He opened Lord deSeis's seal first: might as well get the worst over with as soon as possible. He hit the seal, and lept across the lava to the open part of the sanctuary (did they really think to trap him in a deadend?) One by one he drew off the minions and killed them, waiting for the lower resist curse to dissipate before returning, until only deSeis was left. Dabble faced him one on one, like a wild west shootout, and deSeis had no chance.
He hit the Vizier's seal and leap away into to open: soon the Vizier and his mob were dead. The Infector's layout was the nice one without the dead end: Dabble killed a few minions that ran at him before returning as if on an elastic string to their master. Then the infector spotted Dabble and came after him, with the rest of his mob. He was as terrifyingly fast, faster than Dabble. Dabble ran through the entire sanctuary with the infector on his heels, out the gate, and lept across a lava river. He then dipatched the last of Diablo's guardians at his leisure.
Time for the final battle. Dabble equipped a rare assualt helmet that meant a loss of 100 life, but gave him maximum protection from fire and lighthing. He replaced his franciscas with throwing spears. They would need frequent repairs, but Dabble could afford to be patient. He could not afford to die.
The ground shook as he opened the last seal, and Dabble cast battle orders. He hit the armor shrine for luck, approached the pentagram, and began to unleash his spears upon Diablo from the edge of the screen. As a river of fire came towards him he ran, drank a greater heling potion, reset, and fired again. He was tempted to stand in Diablo formerly deadly lightning breath, but resisted, even though he was well protected. A string of fire rings allowed a steady stream of spears, then the river of fire forced him to run again. Diablo's health was reduced by a tiny sliver, but Dabble knew he had nothing to fear. He returned to town to repair his spears and buy a few more healing potions.
It was a long and wearing battle, but bit by bit Diablo weakened. There was a final irony though. As Dabble launched the killing spear, Diablo cast his river of flame. The screen froze as Diablo went through his death throws, locking Dabble in the river. When he regained the use of his limbs, Dabble had just a sliver of life left. Wiping his brow, Dbable threw the Sigon's Visor Diablo left him into Halbu's rubbish bin, and turned his thoughts uncertainly to the nightmare ancients.
___________________________________________________
The gory details.
Basic stats (with pluses from items, and 10 stat points remaining):
Str 68+10, Dex 97+1, Vit 100, Eng 10+9
The 68 str allows him to equip the Butcher's pupil cleaver he found (though he's yet to really use it), and the 97 dex allows him to equip war darts (though he's yet to find or buy any half way decent ones).
Base lvl of main skills:
Leap attack 1
Dbl Throw 1
Throw mastery 15
Increased speed 1
Natural resists 3
Battle orders 12
with 4 skill points to distribute (2 of which were distributed during the game).
Main equipment:
Francisca of the bear & soldier's francisca (for double throw)
(+2 warcry throwing axe on the switch to cast battle orders)
For Diablo, switched to
massive throwing spear of slaughter & brutal throwing spear of alacrity
saintly horned helm of the whale (+98 life, +1 increased speed &find item, +3 frenzy),
which gave 629 (1113 with lvl 15 bo) life, and 41/67/59/28 F/C/L/P resists in nm.
For Diablo switched to rare assault helmet socketed with a ral rune for FR,
which gave 531 (939 with bo) life and 72/75/75/28 F/C/L/P resists.
One socket chain mail, gemmed with +3 min da/+20 poison da in 2sec jewel
Hands of broc (all the dual leech he needs)
Rare boots with 10% frw and some resists
Rare heavy belt with 10% fhit rev, 20% cold res, +4 str, 25% poison length reduction
fr/w +res rare ring
4% life steal +24 mana blue ring
+1 barb skills, +3 min da blue ammy
some assorted +res/+life/+cold da charms
