08-11-2003, 09:57 PM
GRIZABELLA: ACT V BLOODY FOOTHILLS AND FRIGID HIGHLANDS
Harrogoth was in trouble. Shenk the Overseer and his minions had laid siege to the citadel. Despite being a population made up of barbarians (who apparently never learned how to Whirlwind), the people of Harrogoth called upon dainty little Grizabella to relieve the siege.
She walked out into the Bloody Foothills and found out just how pathetic the people of Harrogoth were. The foothills were crawling with Lashers and Enslaved and had a few small groups of Slingers providing some missle-fire power. Lashers and Enslaved are both cold immune and stupid. They were dispatched at will. The Slingers are fire immune, but there were never enough of them on the screen at once to do much harm. Also, having 75% block and good defence helped neutralize any trouble they did try to give Grizabella.
![[Image: Griz5_shenk.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Griz5_shenk.jpg)
It wasn't long before she met Shenk himself. He went down with barely a fight.
That was weak. That wasn't a fight worthy of Grizabella. So, I restarted the game to give her a new crack at the Bloody Foothills. Quill Rats and Lashers. Next! Quill rats and Thorn Beats. That's a little better. An extra strong might enchanted Thorn Beast boss gave Grizabella some trouble and killed her merc twice. But otherwise, she handled the challenge well. Come on, give me something hard here.
![[Image: Griz5_skells.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Griz5_skells.jpg)
Burning Dead Archers and Demon Imps. Now, that's what I'm talking about!
The Burning Dead Archers weren't too bad in small groups, because they aren't fire immune and don't have a lot of hit points. Once the confuse aura switches on and they start shooting at each other, they can be picked off. However, I did run into a nasty area that had three boss packs in it, including one who was might enchanted. It took a lot of potions and three trips to town to revive my merc, but that pack was finally destroyed.
Confident that Grizabella could handle anything that the Bloody Foothills could throw at her, I moved on.
![[Image: Griz5_fh.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Griz5_fh.jpg)
The Frigid Highlands had Demon Imps, Slayers, Siege Beasts, Vile Archers, and Lashers. I groaned. Everything except for the Lashers was fire immune. Even the Siege Towers were fire immune. This was going to be a long slow grind.
The nice thing about the Frigid Highlands, though, is that it doesn't have many of what I call "swarmers" -- monsters that quickly rush you and can overwhelm you if you don't get away fast. Most of the monsters in the Frigid Highlands move relatively slowly and don't swarm, so Grizabella was able to pick things off and make slow steady progress. It was fun teaching the Demon Imps a lesson in teleport. "You think that you can just teleport away from me? Watch this!" *flit* *whap!* *whap!"
This brings up another subject. One person asked in this thread what was the difference between Grizabella and, say, an underpowered Holy Fire paladin as far as fighting style goes. I don't think I gave a satisfactory answer to that question, so I'd like to address it now. Besides the obvious comical and challenge differences, a fighter mage has one enormous difference with a paladin: Teleport. You see, I'm not using Teleport just to get to a fight or cross rivers. I'm using it constantly in every fight. If you asked me what my primary attack skill is, I wouldn't say Zeal or Berserk. I would say teleport. Why? Because, my mercenary's jab can deliver three times more damage in the same amount of time than I can. I use Zeal mostly to start up the Confuse aura and to make me feel like I'm actually doing something. It's mostly my merc who delivers the damage -- especially to anything that's fire immune.
Unfortunately, mercenaries aren't very bright about deciding who to attack, so in a fight, I am constantly teleporting around to try to get my merc to pick off strategic targets. If a monster flees, I don't run after it, because my merc doesn't move that fast or chase monsters who are fleeing. Instead, I teleport on top of the monster and give my merc a chance to finish it off. Think about how Demon Imps behave and you'll have an idea of what this looks like. A fighter mage is constantly flitting in and out and from one side of a battle to another.
In military terms, a zealing holy fire paladin would be like a massive armor tank column with his massive block, defence, hit points, and powerful weapons, capable of powering through a massive monster pack. A fighter mage, by contrast, is more like a lightly armed fast attack or special ops unit with her ability to flit in, kill key monsters (e.g. Oblivian Knights) and flit out fast. But like a fast attack unit, she doesn't have the raw power to bulldoze her way through a crowd. I hope that explains it well. If you saw Grizabella in action, I'm sure you'd see that there's no comparison between her fighting style and a paladin or any other fighter class.
![[Image: Griz5_fh2.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Griz5_fh2.jpg)
It was a long grueling search, but I found all of the imprisoned barbarians and yelled to them, "Hey! Use that scroll of tp you have in your pocket!" Somehow in all that time in a wooden cage, no one ever thought of that. Stupid barbarians.
Up next: A Damsel Rescues a Damsel or Dies Trying
Harrogoth was in trouble. Shenk the Overseer and his minions had laid siege to the citadel. Despite being a population made up of barbarians (who apparently never learned how to Whirlwind), the people of Harrogoth called upon dainty little Grizabella to relieve the siege.
She walked out into the Bloody Foothills and found out just how pathetic the people of Harrogoth were. The foothills were crawling with Lashers and Enslaved and had a few small groups of Slingers providing some missle-fire power. Lashers and Enslaved are both cold immune and stupid. They were dispatched at will. The Slingers are fire immune, but there were never enough of them on the screen at once to do much harm. Also, having 75% block and good defence helped neutralize any trouble they did try to give Grizabella.
It wasn't long before she met Shenk himself. He went down with barely a fight.
That was weak. That wasn't a fight worthy of Grizabella. So, I restarted the game to give her a new crack at the Bloody Foothills. Quill Rats and Lashers. Next! Quill rats and Thorn Beats. That's a little better. An extra strong might enchanted Thorn Beast boss gave Grizabella some trouble and killed her merc twice. But otherwise, she handled the challenge well. Come on, give me something hard here.
Burning Dead Archers and Demon Imps. Now, that's what I'm talking about!
The Burning Dead Archers weren't too bad in small groups, because they aren't fire immune and don't have a lot of hit points. Once the confuse aura switches on and they start shooting at each other, they can be picked off. However, I did run into a nasty area that had three boss packs in it, including one who was might enchanted. It took a lot of potions and three trips to town to revive my merc, but that pack was finally destroyed.
Confident that Grizabella could handle anything that the Bloody Foothills could throw at her, I moved on.
The Frigid Highlands had Demon Imps, Slayers, Siege Beasts, Vile Archers, and Lashers. I groaned. Everything except for the Lashers was fire immune. Even the Siege Towers were fire immune. This was going to be a long slow grind.
The nice thing about the Frigid Highlands, though, is that it doesn't have many of what I call "swarmers" -- monsters that quickly rush you and can overwhelm you if you don't get away fast. Most of the monsters in the Frigid Highlands move relatively slowly and don't swarm, so Grizabella was able to pick things off and make slow steady progress. It was fun teaching the Demon Imps a lesson in teleport. "You think that you can just teleport away from me? Watch this!" *flit* *whap!* *whap!"
This brings up another subject. One person asked in this thread what was the difference between Grizabella and, say, an underpowered Holy Fire paladin as far as fighting style goes. I don't think I gave a satisfactory answer to that question, so I'd like to address it now. Besides the obvious comical and challenge differences, a fighter mage has one enormous difference with a paladin: Teleport. You see, I'm not using Teleport just to get to a fight or cross rivers. I'm using it constantly in every fight. If you asked me what my primary attack skill is, I wouldn't say Zeal or Berserk. I would say teleport. Why? Because, my mercenary's jab can deliver three times more damage in the same amount of time than I can. I use Zeal mostly to start up the Confuse aura and to make me feel like I'm actually doing something. It's mostly my merc who delivers the damage -- especially to anything that's fire immune.
Unfortunately, mercenaries aren't very bright about deciding who to attack, so in a fight, I am constantly teleporting around to try to get my merc to pick off strategic targets. If a monster flees, I don't run after it, because my merc doesn't move that fast or chase monsters who are fleeing. Instead, I teleport on top of the monster and give my merc a chance to finish it off. Think about how Demon Imps behave and you'll have an idea of what this looks like. A fighter mage is constantly flitting in and out and from one side of a battle to another.
In military terms, a zealing holy fire paladin would be like a massive armor tank column with his massive block, defence, hit points, and powerful weapons, capable of powering through a massive monster pack. A fighter mage, by contrast, is more like a lightly armed fast attack or special ops unit with her ability to flit in, kill key monsters (e.g. Oblivian Knights) and flit out fast. But like a fast attack unit, she doesn't have the raw power to bulldoze her way through a crowd. I hope that explains it well. If you saw Grizabella in action, I'm sure you'd see that there's no comparison between her fighting style and a paladin or any other fighter class.
It was a long grueling search, but I found all of the imprisoned barbarians and yelled to them, "Hey! Use that scroll of tp you have in your pocket!" Somehow in all that time in a wooden cage, no one ever thought of that. Stupid barbarians.
Up next: A Damsel Rescues a Damsel or Dies Trying