Quote:Aliza seems to be doing really great so far, but will she be replaced by a Town Guard in act two? I'd think having a prayer merc would be good because of Irene's low life, but could Aliza handle being rejected?

After successfully rescuing Deckard Cain, Irene and Aliza returned to the Dark Woods and proceeded to the Black Marsh. Our heroines had to keep on their toes to keep from getting trapped in carver camps, and a champion pack of vile archers gave them a spot of trouble. But otherwise, the clearing of the Black Marsh proceeded routinely. Once the Black Marsh had been fully cleared, Irene and Aliza stepped down into The Hole.



Just to the left of the entrance to The Hole, they were greeted by a pack of four champion brutes. Yikes. There weren't any corral fences to hide behind here! Plus, they hadn't explored or cleared any other direction, so they didn't have any known safe places to run to.

Hoping for the best, they ran to the right and found a chamber filled with carver shaman packs and normal brutes. They backed off to try a downward path and found that it curved around into a funky looking loop back to the entrance (actually two loops -- see the map for details). This path would do. They found a few scattered normal monsters on the path -- brutes and carvers mostly -- who threatened to trap them in. With the champion brutes always on their heels, Irene and Aliza ran around and around the loops by the entrance and picked off the normal monsters whenever they got the opportunity to. Once all of the normal monsters had been killed, it was easy to separate the pack of champion brutes and pick off its members individually.



After establishing a beachhead of sorts near The Hole's entrance, Irene and Aliza proceeded on a methodical clear of The Hole Level 1. In the process, they found the entrance to Level 2 and entered it.



The Hole Level 2 was only a little bigger than the Underground Passage Level 2, but its intertwining passages made it easier to string out and deal with monster packs. A stone skin carver boss guarded the gold chest, but he was taken down easily.

With some trepidation, Irene and Aliza entered the Forgotten Tower. The entrance room of the Tower Cellar Level 1 was empty, but past the first doorway, they found an unpleasant welcoming committee -- a ghost boss pack. (I must admit that I probably have an outsized fear of ghosts than most people right now after playing Maldar for so long). The boss was fire enchanted and even the minions hit hard. What's more, ghosts have natural mana burn attacks, and I could see the characteristic orange swirl showing that they were being healed every time they hit Irene. They didn't heal when they attacked Aliza, though, because she had no mana to steal.

It was difficult to fight the minions even two at a time, and it was impossible to fight the boss while there were any other monsters present. Luckily, ghosts move slowly, so their packs are easy to break up. Irene and Aliza ran back and forth between three rooms in order to break up the pack and find any possible two-on-one fights (Irene and Aliza on one ghost). After some time, they managed to kill all of the minions and began working on the boss. Irene had to quaff a lot of healing potions while she tanked and had to back off frequently to give her life ball time to recharge, but in the end they successfully defeated the boss.

There were also some normal devilkins and dark archers on Level 1, but they were dispatched much more quickly. In the process, Aliza turned level 9. Irene and Aliza then stepped down into Level 2.



Sheesh, what is this? A ghost boss convention? This might enchanted boss was even nastier than the fire enchanted ghost boss. To make matters worse, as Irene and Aliza ran back and forth between rooms to break up the pack, they woke up a separate group of normal ghosts. Our heroines ran deeper into the Tower Cellar Level 2 to try to find some room to work with. They ended up finding rooms with normal blood clans and dark archers. They were able to deal with those monster packs easily.

In the process, they found the stairs down to Level 3, and Aliza wanted to go down and leave the ghosts behind, but Irene said, "Nah, we can do it." "Yeah, you're right," said Aliza. With more room to work with, it was easier to divide the horde of ghosts. First, the normal ghosts were dispatched and then the minions. All that remained was the boss himself.



Irene and Aliza tried the standard practice of having Irene tank with Aliza shooting from behind, but the might enchanted boss hit too hard for that. Even with potions, Irene could take at most two hits before she was forced to retreat, causing Aliza to move and giving the boss the opportunity to heal. In addition, if the boss attacked Irene, he could heal himself with his natural mana burn ability.

So Aliza and Irene switched. Irene fed potions to Aliza while Aliza tanked, and that worked well. They got the boss down to 1/3rd of his life when Irene started running out of potions, so they returned to town to refresh potions. When they returned, they planned to do the same thing, but they couldn't get the system set up again. (The boss hadn't healed while they were in town). Every time the boss attacked Aliza, Aliza would retreat and the boss would start attacking Irene instead. Irene ran around and around the room trying to get everything setup, but Aliza stubbornly wouldn't cooperate. The boss completely healed himself. Irene and Aliza returned to town again to talk things over.

(At this point, I minimized the Diablo II window and looked at the screenshot above to see how the heck I had gotten things to work the first time). They returned to the Tower, and this time Aliza backed herself up against the health shrine in the center of the room, and Irene moved to the opposite side of the shrine. When the ghost boss attacked Aliza from below, Aliza found her back against the shrine and she showed more backbone. With Irene feeding her potions, Aliza finally took the ghost boss down.

The Tower Cellar Level 3 had a boss dark archer pack and normal devilkins and blood clans. These were all fairly straightforward to deal with. The dark archer boss was mana burn enchanted and once again, she healed every time she hit Irene. There's no doubt in my mind now that this whole mana burn converts to life leech thing is a real effect.



The Tower Cellar Level 4 had a cold enchanted blood clan boss pack and normal archers. The archers were taken out quickly. The blood clan minions were a little harder to deal with, because they ran so fast, making the pack hard to break up. But eventually, Irene and Aliza took out the minions and started to work on the boss.

Irene tried tanking the boss, but he hit too hard for that. Aliza tried tanking, and even though she was able to tank the boss when well supplied with potions, the plan didn't work. Since the boss was cold enchanted, Aliza would get chilled and would fire at such a slow rate that the boss healed faster than she could damage him. They then tried the "Griswold Maneuver" where Irene would run around the boss while Aliza shot at him from a distance. But the boss ran and attacked so fast that Irene kept getting pummeled. They tried positioning themselves behind various fixtures -- behind a casket, behind candles, etc. --, but the boss always found a way to get to them. Run-and-shoot tactics didn't work, either, because the boss healed too fast. After fifteen minutes of trying, Irene and Aliza finally had to concede that there was no way to kill this boss. Disappointed, they took the stairs to Level 5 to find the Countess.

(*Sigh* Too bad. As unrealistically crazy as it sounds, I really wanted to keep the "full clear" theme going. It's funny. I had always figured that the first boss I'd have to park would be lightning enchanted. I hadn't considered how cold enchanted bosses would slow Irene and Aliza down).

The entrance area to the Tower Cellar Level 5 had normal blood clans, dark archers, and ghosts. It took some doing, but Irene and Aliza were able to break up the monster mass by running in and out of the rooms with the gold coins and around the loop near the entrance stairs. Once the mass was broken up into manageable chunks, Irene and Aliza were able to take the monsters down easily.



After clearing the monsters in the entrance area, Irene and Aliza drew the Countess's minions out to the entrance area. By running in and out of rooms and around corners, they were able to break up the pack and take on the minions two-on-one. The minions fell in short order, and all that was left to take care of was the Countess herself.



When taking on the Countess, Irene tanked while Aliza fired arrows from behind. Irene held up pretty well. She used some of her light healing potions that she had been hoarding along the way (higher grade healing potions regenerate life more quickly than lower grade ones), so she was able to take several hits before she had to back off each time she engaged the Countess.



The fight raged around the room, but Irene and Aliza were always firmly in control. In time, the Countess was taken down.

Some people have asked for stats on Irene and Aliza, so here they are. After defeating the Countess, their listed stats were as follows:

Irene:

Level: 13
Life: 52
Damage: 1-2
Attack rating: 75
Defense: 6

Aliza:

Level: 9
Life: 99
Damage: 3-6 (plus occasional cold arrow damage)
Defense: 77

Occhidiangela,Oct 22 2003, 09:08 AM Wrote:1.  Your damage remains at 1-2.

Have you found zero elemental or otherwise damaging charms up to this point?

Quote: 1. Your damage remains at 1-2.

Have you found zero elemental or otherwise damaging charms up to this point?

Quote:2. I note that the ghost appears to be green, indicating poison damage. Or, is that really blue, and coming from Aliza's cold arrow? IIRC, Aliza has no bow equipped, so she could not have a poison inflicting bow.

I have to break in here a moment and say I can't believe that Irene and Aliza managed to kill the Countess either. As I said in the beginning, I started Irene as a silly diversion while I leveled up my next "real" character. I never intended for her to become a full-fledged "MongoJerry character." At the beginning, I figured that with a little luck and a lot of running, I could manage to rescue Cain. But no way would I be able to get Irene and Aliza to or past the Countess.

Two funny things happened along the way. First, I figured out a lot of strategies for fighting using these two funny characters -- mostly involving terrain features -- that I hadn't even considered before. Second, I've grown attached to Irene, and now I want to see her make it all the way! So, my other character is on hold for now while I focus exclusively on Irene. That's probably for the best anyway, because that'll let me wait for the final release of the 1.10 patch before bringing my other character into hell (assuming it'll be possible to import that character from 1.10s to the final release).

So, without further ado, the continued bonus adventures of Irene, the Infirm, and her friend Aliza, the naked Rogue.

After killing the Countess, Irene and Aliza returned to the Black Marsh and quickly found the entrance to the Tamoe Highland.



When I become a Prime Evil and want to take over the world rule #15: When sending a horde of monsters to kill a hero,



do not provide said hero with a convenient corral with which to herd the monsters.



The Tamoe Highland had many adventuresome (read: scary) moments. The ramping up of the difficulty was palpable. Even normal monster packs had to be broken up into manageable pieces.



It was a long process filled with moments that gave Irene some trepidation about what she might have to face in the Rogue Monastery, but she and Aliza finally cleared the Tamoe Highland. In the process, Irene earned her 14th level.

Then Irene and Aliza stepped down into The Pit.

Now where were we? Oh, yes. (In a hoarse whisper) The Pit of Despair. Don't even thi... (clears throat)

Oh, right, right. Irene and Aliza. You know, I frankly don't know if I've ever entered The Pit with any of my previous characters. I occasionally visit some of the side areas to relieve some of the tedium of leveling up, but I can't think of any time even when I first played the game that I visited The Pit. By the time I get to the Tamoe Highland, I'm usually so eager to get to the next waypoint that I follow the road directly to the Rogue Monastery. I had no idea what to expect when Irene and Aliza entered The Pit Level 1.



The moment our heroines walked down the stairs, they were accosted by a swarm of dark stalkers. Luckily, though, the entrance area looked familiar to our heroines. In fact, it looked exactly the same as the entrance portion of the Underground Passage. They remembered that there was a nice large loop just below the entrance, so they led the dark stalkers there and used the loop to break up and take apart the pack.

The next monster park to enter the picture was made of devilkin. Irene and Aliza had learned to not be fooled into a false sense of security around devilkin. After all, they can quickly swarm a character, and their shaman can be very troublesome when they revive dead devilkin behind you. Irene and Aliza cautiously killed a few devilkin in preparation for what they figured would be an assault on a devilkin/shaman camp.

They then received a pleasant surprise. The devilkin weren't being revived! Irene and Aliza walked forward cautiously and confirmed that there were no shaman about. Nice. It turned out that The Pit Level 1 had no shaman in it, so all of the devilkin there could be killed quickly, safely, and permanently. There were also bone warriors there, and our heroines had to carefully pick apart a bone warrior champion pack, but otherwise, they made smooth progress through The Pit Level 1 and at the end of the cave, they found the stairs to Level 2 and walked down them.

]

Hmmmm... Our heroines didn't like the look of this. The area near the stairs had very little maneuvering room, and it opened up quickly onto a wide platform that invited monsters to swarm Irene and Aliza from several directions. Irene crept forward step by step to get as good of a look at the terrain as she could get and to see if perhaps she could wake up only a small pack of monsters that perhaps she and Aliza would be able to handle.

The tactic worked at first. Two bone warriors walked up the stairs on the left. Irene backed off, and she and Aliza took them down. Irene inched forward again, and two devilkin came from the right. Again, Irene backed off, and she and Aliza took down their assailants.

Then, they received a disturbing shock. The devilkin were being revived. There were shaman here! The entrance area was no longer safe as there was now no way to clear it while there were shaman about. What's more, more monsters were starting to wake up and were making their way to the stairs on both the right and left. If that wasn't bad enough, on the right, there was a conviction enchanted devilkin boss (visible at the bottom edge of the above screenshot), and his pack was starting to make its way toward the entrance area. If our heroines didn't act soon, they would be boxed in. They had two choices: retreat up the stairs and leave The Pit Level 2 forever or charge forward in the hope of finding a loop or other terrain formation that would allow them to more easily separate and deal with the monster packs.

Our heroines charged forward.



While running in a controlled panic, they received some disturbing news. There were no looping paths to run around. Instead, The Pit Level 2 was one big chamber filled with monsters. There was not just one shaman; there were four of them. In addition to the devilkin boss pack, there was also a bone warrior boss pack. And to top it all off, several fast running dark stalkers were always on Irene and Aliza's tail, never giving them a chance to catch their breaths or complete any fights with other monsters.



This was like being in an enlarged version of Duriel's chamber that has been packed with hordes of cows. No way. Uh, uh. No sane person would attempt to deal with this. Irene opened a portal and our heroines returned to camp.

Of course, a sane person also wouldn't be playing a naked unskilled punching sorceress. Irene and Aliza returned to the Black Marsh waypoint and ran to The Pit and then to the entrance to The Pit Level 2. (The new and improved stamina potions were a godsend for this). The key to this battle was going to be the devilkin shaman. If they were thinned out or even better eliminated entirely, then Irene and Aliza could take out the little devilkin and have a lot more room to work with while fighting the other monsters.

Since Irene had ended up leading the bulk of the monsters to the bottom right corner of the chamber in the previous pass, Irene and Aliza charged toward the left side of the room, looking for any solitary shaman whom they might be able to pick off.



They found a shaman who was initially alone, but the main monster mass quickly came to his aid, forcing Irene and Aliza to run. There was a small patch on the right-hand side of the room that they hadn't mapped out, yet, so they headed over there to see if there might be some useful terrain features there, but as expected, there weren't any alcoves or paths in that direction. The level was indeed just one big chamber.

Irene managed to get a few punches in on a couple of the shaman, but Irene and Aliza didn't get a chance to kill anything in this pass other than some quickly revived devilkin. They used the still opened townportal in the bottom right corner to return to camp again. The pass wasn't completely fruitless, though. They got a much better look at the composition of the monsters as well as the layout of the room in this pass, so they now had a better idea of what they were dealing with.

Irene and Aliza returned to The Pit Level 2 via the entrance again. This started feeling like the Secret Cow Level with the entrance functioning as the Red Portal. Townportals could be put up anywhere, but like the Red Portal, the entrance had to be kept clear at all times. Irene and Aliza ran toward the left side of the chamber again, and the next two images illustrate the difficulty Irene and Aliza faced while dealing with this room.



As you can see, Irene has found a nice solitary shaman target. Contrary to popular belief, Irene can still take down normal monsters by herself, although she needs Aliza's help with champions and bosses. It's a good thing, too, because with so many monsters to shoot at, Aliza practically shot randomly here, so she initially served as little more than a useful distraction.



Two punches later and the monster mass swarmed our heroines and rescued the otherwise hapless shaman.

Irene and Aliza ran. With the main monster pack in the bottom left-hand corner now, Irene ran to the middle right-hand side of the room and began punching another shaman. The pack closed in on our heroines again and Aliza bravely made a stand, fending off the pack to buy more time for Irene, quaffing several potions in the process. Aliza had a sliver of life left when the shaman died. Irene started a townportal and she and Aliza returned to town just in the nick of time.

Neglecting the two bone warriors that were killed at the start, this was the first monster death of the battle, but it was a big one. If Irene and Aliza could take down the other shaman in a similar way, then things would become a lot simpler.



Our heroines returned via the entrance again and charged down to the bottom where two shaman were now hanging out. Irene managed to get one down to 1/3rd of its life, but she was forced to run before she finished him off. Irene and Aliza ran up through the chamber and back down the left side and found another shaman essentially alone. Irene punched him while Aliza held off the main monster pack as best she could. Unfortunately, Aliza was in a more open position than she had been in before, so she was more easily swarmed. She couldn't take the pounding and died. But it was a valiant and useful sacrifice, because she bought Irene enough time to finish off the shaman. Irene townportaled back to town and revived Aliza.

When Irene and Aliza returned via the entrance once again, they discovered something astonishing. Because of all the running around they had done, the monsters were all jumbled and scattered about the chamber. When they moved forward, three bone warriors started walking toward them. Irene and Aliza were about to charge forward to make sure that they didn't get trapped in the entrance area, but then they realized that only the three bone warriors were coming toward them. No other monsters seemed to be alerted to their reappearance in the chamber.

So Irene and Aliza backed off and took out these warriors. These were gift kills as far as they were concerned.



They tried their luck again, and sure enough, it paid off when four dark stalkers -- and no other monsters -- charged forward. Irene and Aliza had to go up the stairs to allow their life balls to recharge once and to refresh Irene's potion belt, but otherwise, it was a simple matter to take out these dark stalkers. This was huge, because their speed had made the dark stalkers the most annoying monsters in the room. The tide of battle had turned.

After finishing off those dark stalkers, Irene and Aliza inched forward again only to find and dispatch the last remaining dark stalker. Then they killed some devilkin just to the right of the entrance. The two remaining shaman were at the bottom of the chamber, so they weren't aware of the heroines' presences and therefore didn't know to revive their minions. (The act of reviving is considered an "attack." If shaman don't see you, they don't attack you and therefore they don't revive their minions. So a necromancer can cast Dim Vision on a shaman and to stop him from reviving his minions).

Irene and Aliza then found a few more stray bone warriors and took them out. The monster herd was thinning out rapidly.



But Irene and Aliza still wanted to dispose of the two remaining shaman once and for all, so they charged down to the bottom of the chamber. They killed one of the shaman and then had to back off and run around the chamber, drawing off the remaining monster mobs. They then returned and killed the other shaman. All that was left to do now was some mopup work.



Of course, that "mopup work" involved killing two bosses, but since most of their minions were already dead, the bosses didn't give Irene and Aliza much trouble. In celebration of their full clear of the level, the heroines popped the gold chest and took their share of the treasure.

It was time to move on and finally face what lay in store for them in the Rogue Monastery.

Irene and Aliza took the waypoint to the Black Marsh and ran to the Rogue Monastery's door.

"Should we knock?" chuckled Aliza.

They burst open the door and quickly accosted and dispatched the returned archer guards near the door. They then opened the door at the far end of the room, and, not seeing anything immediately to attack, ran to the center of the Outer Cloister, where they knew the waypoint to be.

After getting the waypoint, they settled into a routine clear of the Outer Cloister, which was populated by Yetis, razor spines, and black rogues. The monsters were definitely getting tougher, so our heroines had to break up even normal monster packs. However, the archways, corners, and wide spaces of the Outer Cloister made breaking up packs fairly easy. A champion razor spine pack gave Irene and Aliza some trouble, but eventually, they were able to pick it apart.



They opened the doors to the Barracks and were immediately accosted by a black rogue boss pack. Black rogues, especially minions and bosses, hit hard and run fast. Irene and Aliza had to use practically the entire Outer Cloister area to break up the pack. Even the minions could only be handled one at a time. But bit by bit, they picked apart the minions and finally took down the boss right in the middle of the Outer Cloister.



The most annoying thing about the Barracks, though, was the devilkin shaman. In fact, I'm starting to develop a perhaps unhealthy fear of shaman. It can be so easy to get swarmed and trapped around them if you're not really careful. Most of the time, Irene and Aliza led the little devilkin out to the Outer Cloister and killed them there before attacking the shaman. The shaman would still raise the devilkin even though the bodies of the devilkin were several screens away, but at least the devilkin would be parked far enough away that they couldn't disturb Irene and Aliza while they were killing the shaman. I'm beginning to think that there's no limit to the range of the shaman revive spell and no line-of-sight requirement. All that seems to matter is if the shaman can see you and therefore can "attack" you by reviving devilkin, carvers, etc.

There were two shaman bosses in the Barracks, and one of them was lightning enchanted as you can see in the screenshot. Irene didn't even try to risk tanking for Aliza. Instead, she got Aliza to stand in a good spot that would allow Aliza to shoot at the shaman boss and yet keep both of them shielded from the shaman's lightning. It's a good thing Irene didn't try tanking the shaman. During the battle, she got hit by one glob of lightning and it took away 2/3rds of her life.



But on the whole, Irene and Aliza were able to methodically clear the Barracks with judicious use of obstacles and architectural features. As Irene and Aliza were battling a couple of devilkin/shaman packs, though, Irene's "danger sense" started tingling. This place seemed too familiar.



Yikes!

Luckily, the Smith hadn't been woken up yet by the tme Irene and Aliza realized where they were. They drew the little devilkins away and killed them and then came back and took on the shaman. When Irene engaged the last shaman, the Smith came roaring out. With some hit-and-run tactics and Aliza acting as a distraction, Irene finally brought the last shaman down, leaving only the Smith himself to deal with.



Irene decided to try to see if she could tank the Smith and found it to be an adventuresome (read: stupid) idea. The Smith took 2/3rds of her life away in one hit. I have no idea if that was a critical hit or not. If not, she got lucky.

So Irene and Aliza switched tactics and led the Smith out of the Barracks.



If the tactic was good enough for Treehead Woodfist, it was good enough for the Smith. Irene and Aliza got the Smith trapped in an archway corner in the Outer Cloister. Aliza could then safely shoot arrows at the Smith through the arches.



Luckily, the Smith doesn't heal, so Aliza was able to slowly and surely whittle him down. In not much time at all, the Smith was taken down.

Irene and Aliza completed the clear of the Barracks, grabbed the Horodric Malus, and returned to town.

Loki,Oct 27 2003, 04:47 PM Wrote:Wow, I commend your determination and patience.