07-17-2003, 06:45 AM
Act III:
I know some people harbour a burning hatred of Act III but I actually like it, esp the Kurast areas. Fetish genocide is always fun....
I think a lot of the frustration comes from Fetish blow darters, which have lots of AR and in packs are a frequent annoyance and cause of block lock. Fortunately a level 5 holy shield doubled my defense, and my defiance merc added another 150% or so. This combined with max blocking meant that physical attacks were a nonissue and I could slaughter pygmies with impunity.
Act III also proved to be a veritable fountain of experience. I went from level 27 to level 32 just reaching mephisto. Mephisto himself was a business as usual. His lightning attacks hurt quite a bit, even with > 60% resistance, but he didn't use them often enough to be problem.
As for items nothing much happened. I swapped my "steel" broadsword for a "steel" longsword for the additional range and speed. My merc, as usual, mowed through enemies with abandon, so there was no need to upgrade his gear. Act IV would change this however...
Act IV:
The outer steppes and plains of despair were routine clears with one exception. That is, of course, the new venom lord inferno attack which hurts quite a bit. Fortunately this didn't impede my progress too much. The river of flame was a surprise, in that most monsters proved utterly ineffectual when it came to hurting me. Usually I fear abyss knights but their elemental attacks did nothing and physical attacks bounced off my high defense. Vengeance is quite powerful now, I have 2+1 (from an amulet) points in vengeance, and 11 points in the resist auras for a total of 411% additional elemental damage. Combined with a 9 fps attack it dispatches small groups of monsters quite efficiently. Mana consumption is not so much an issue anymore since meditation now regens something like 4.4 mana/sec, and potions are very common. Some mana leech would be nice though. I expect the resist auras to be handy in shoring up my resistances in NM and Hell, I think instead of going for a 4 PD shield I'll see if I can get a nice rare one with +skills, +defense, and resists.
Anyway, I killed Hephasto and shattered Mephisto's soulstone, yielded a friggin' el rune. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled I was. I proceeded into the chaos sanctuary which is always an adventure. Mixed packs of venom lords, doom knights, stranglers, and oblivion knights actually managed to kill my merc a couple of times, mostly due to curse assistance from the oblivs and the venom lord infernos. The first seal was the vizier and his buddies, I let them mob my merc while I picked off stragglers at the edges. He died again, but lasted for quite a while. With lifesteal I wouldn't have to worry about him at all. I decided to tackle the infector next. Because I knew that venom lords were dangerous now I switched to a wand with confuse charges that I had been saving for just this occasion. Unfortunately things didn't work out so well. I confused the pack, but they didn't turn on their master. I couldn't get far enough away for them to redirect focus. My merc died within seconds and soon I was fighting a running battle. I discovered that the Infector's inferno was an order of magnitude more powerful than that his of his mundane brethren. I mean it REALLY REALLY HURT, it must have been doing over a 100 damage per sec with 73% fire resists. Eventually I got trapped by a lone venom lord in a corridor, the rest of the pack followed, and I sucked rejuves desperately to avoid being killed. I couldn't kill the annoying roadblock before my potions ran out, so I saved and exit. How humiliating.
As it stands I'm still in Act IV with the following skills.
Vengeance 2
Fanaticism 3
Charge 2
Holy Shield 5
Resist Fire 8
Resist Cold 1
Resist Lightning 2
Meditation 1
Vigor 1
+ all the necessary pre-reqs. I also have a +1 to combat skills amulet.
I know some people harbour a burning hatred of Act III but I actually like it, esp the Kurast areas. Fetish genocide is always fun....
I think a lot of the frustration comes from Fetish blow darters, which have lots of AR and in packs are a frequent annoyance and cause of block lock. Fortunately a level 5 holy shield doubled my defense, and my defiance merc added another 150% or so. This combined with max blocking meant that physical attacks were a nonissue and I could slaughter pygmies with impunity.
Act III also proved to be a veritable fountain of experience. I went from level 27 to level 32 just reaching mephisto. Mephisto himself was a business as usual. His lightning attacks hurt quite a bit, even with > 60% resistance, but he didn't use them often enough to be problem.
As for items nothing much happened. I swapped my "steel" broadsword for a "steel" longsword for the additional range and speed. My merc, as usual, mowed through enemies with abandon, so there was no need to upgrade his gear. Act IV would change this however...
Act IV:
The outer steppes and plains of despair were routine clears with one exception. That is, of course, the new venom lord inferno attack which hurts quite a bit. Fortunately this didn't impede my progress too much. The river of flame was a surprise, in that most monsters proved utterly ineffectual when it came to hurting me. Usually I fear abyss knights but their elemental attacks did nothing and physical attacks bounced off my high defense. Vengeance is quite powerful now, I have 2+1 (from an amulet) points in vengeance, and 11 points in the resist auras for a total of 411% additional elemental damage. Combined with a 9 fps attack it dispatches small groups of monsters quite efficiently. Mana consumption is not so much an issue anymore since meditation now regens something like 4.4 mana/sec, and potions are very common. Some mana leech would be nice though. I expect the resist auras to be handy in shoring up my resistances in NM and Hell, I think instead of going for a 4 PD shield I'll see if I can get a nice rare one with +skills, +defense, and resists.
Anyway, I killed Hephasto and shattered Mephisto's soulstone, yielded a friggin' el rune. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled I was. I proceeded into the chaos sanctuary which is always an adventure. Mixed packs of venom lords, doom knights, stranglers, and oblivion knights actually managed to kill my merc a couple of times, mostly due to curse assistance from the oblivs and the venom lord infernos. The first seal was the vizier and his buddies, I let them mob my merc while I picked off stragglers at the edges. He died again, but lasted for quite a while. With lifesteal I wouldn't have to worry about him at all. I decided to tackle the infector next. Because I knew that venom lords were dangerous now I switched to a wand with confuse charges that I had been saving for just this occasion. Unfortunately things didn't work out so well. I confused the pack, but they didn't turn on their master. I couldn't get far enough away for them to redirect focus. My merc died within seconds and soon I was fighting a running battle. I discovered that the Infector's inferno was an order of magnitude more powerful than that his of his mundane brethren. I mean it REALLY REALLY HURT, it must have been doing over a 100 damage per sec with 73% fire resists. Eventually I got trapped by a lone venom lord in a corridor, the rest of the pack followed, and I sucked rejuves desperately to avoid being killed. I couldn't kill the annoying roadblock before my potions ran out, so I saved and exit. How humiliating.
As it stands I'm still in Act IV with the following skills.
Vengeance 2
Fanaticism 3
Charge 2
Holy Shield 5
Resist Fire 8
Resist Cold 1
Resist Lightning 2
Meditation 1
Vigor 1
+ all the necessary pre-reqs. I also have a +1 to combat skills amulet.