08-11-2003, 10:23 PM
GRIZABELLA: THE ANCIENTS
There Grizabella was on the Arreat Summit, and I have to admit that I was more than a little scared. There have been plenty of chances up till now to make a costly mistake that gets Grizabella killed. But I'm an old hardcore hand who likes to play underpowered or untwinked characters. I've developed incredible patience and I know that as long as one takes his time and picks his spots, he can come out alive in the end.
But all the usual tactics don't work here. I have a philosophy that says as long as I can damage them a little and stay alive long enough to get to town to repair and replenish potions, then I can kill them. But you can't tp back to town here without starting the battle over again. In addition, Confuse isn't going to do any good here. It's a chica y manos fight and Grizabella can only use what she brings with her.
The first thing I did was create four stashes of potions -- one at each corner of the Summit. The one problem with this tactic is that the computer will clean up potions left on the ground after a couple of minutes, so the clock is ticking from the moment you drop the first potion. I moved charms into my stash and cube to make room in my inventory and bought healing potions from Malah. I put 8 red potions in each corner, tp'd back to town, grabbed the Full Rejuv potions I'd been collecting along the way, and put 6 purple potions in each corner. I then tp'd back to town, recollected my charms, came back to the summit, and refreshed my Battle Command, Battle Orders, Chilling Armor, Energy Shield, and Enchant. I took a deep breath and touched the alter.
I started to fight the first set of ancients that popped out, but then I realized, wait a minute, there were two fire immunes. TP! I touched the alter again and got two fire immunes again. Next! Two fire immunes again. Next! One fire immune, one lightning immune, and one cold immune. Good enough. So, my challenge was to kill:
Korlic (leaper) Immune to Cold, Cursed (Amp), Extra Strong
Madawc (thrower) Immune to Lightning, Extra Fast, Stone Skin
Talic (whirlwinder) Immune to Fire, Cursed (Amp), Aura Enchanted (Blessed Aim)
I quickly determined that I would try to kill them in the above order.
![[Image: Griz5_ancients.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Griz5_ancients.jpg)
Talic whirlwinded my merc and instantly had us Amp cursed. "You think that Amp curse scares me?" I asked. "Well, you're damn right it does! But how do you like this?" I cast a level 17 Battle Cry which lowers enemy damage by 41%. Battle Cry, the anti-Amp. I also staticed Korlic and Talic down to half before engaging Korlic full-tilt.
The biggest task of battling the Ancients is killing your first one. It's like their power goes as the square of the number of Ancients there are. I would love to show you screenshot after screenshot of the epic battle that ensued at this point, but I was too busy quaffing potions, giving my merc potions, teleporting to position my merc to attack Korlic, and teleporting away to escape and refresh my potion belt to take more than the above screenshot.
The battle was hard, but the damage we were taking was manageable. We weren't in any danger of being one or two-hit killed. On the first hit on me or my merc, I'd quaff or give my merc one or two red potions. When we received enough damage to get down to about 1/3 health, I'd quaff or give my merc a full rejuv. After we'd used 4-6 full rejuvs, I'd teleport over to a stash of potions and refresh my belt. I didn't want to have an empty belt when the computer decided to clean up the potions.
In less time than I expected, Grizabella and her merc killed Korlic. At that moment, I knew that Grizabella had the upper hand.
![[Image: Griz5_ancients2.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Griz5_ancients2.jpg)
At that point, I switched my attention to Madawc, since he wasn't fire immune, but I had a devil of a time killing him. As the thrower, he likes to move away from anybody meleeing him and throw his axes from a distance. The battle raged all over.
![[Image: Griz5_ancients3.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Griz5_ancients3.jpg)
The problem was that I would teleport on top of Madawc and my merc would get a jab in on him. Then, Talic would come by and whirlwind us and distract the merc. Meanwhile, Madawc would move back and start throwing at us. I didn't like this situation. We weren't doing enough damage to Madawc and Talic was getting free shots on us. I figured I had 75% block. I could take whatever Madawc threw at me. Time to switch targets.
There Grizabella was on the Arreat Summit, and I have to admit that I was more than a little scared. There have been plenty of chances up till now to make a costly mistake that gets Grizabella killed. But I'm an old hardcore hand who likes to play underpowered or untwinked characters. I've developed incredible patience and I know that as long as one takes his time and picks his spots, he can come out alive in the end.
But all the usual tactics don't work here. I have a philosophy that says as long as I can damage them a little and stay alive long enough to get to town to repair and replenish potions, then I can kill them. But you can't tp back to town here without starting the battle over again. In addition, Confuse isn't going to do any good here. It's a chica y manos fight and Grizabella can only use what she brings with her.
The first thing I did was create four stashes of potions -- one at each corner of the Summit. The one problem with this tactic is that the computer will clean up potions left on the ground after a couple of minutes, so the clock is ticking from the moment you drop the first potion. I moved charms into my stash and cube to make room in my inventory and bought healing potions from Malah. I put 8 red potions in each corner, tp'd back to town, grabbed the Full Rejuv potions I'd been collecting along the way, and put 6 purple potions in each corner. I then tp'd back to town, recollected my charms, came back to the summit, and refreshed my Battle Command, Battle Orders, Chilling Armor, Energy Shield, and Enchant. I took a deep breath and touched the alter.
I started to fight the first set of ancients that popped out, but then I realized, wait a minute, there were two fire immunes. TP! I touched the alter again and got two fire immunes again. Next! Two fire immunes again. Next! One fire immune, one lightning immune, and one cold immune. Good enough. So, my challenge was to kill:
Korlic (leaper) Immune to Cold, Cursed (Amp), Extra Strong
Madawc (thrower) Immune to Lightning, Extra Fast, Stone Skin
Talic (whirlwinder) Immune to Fire, Cursed (Amp), Aura Enchanted (Blessed Aim)
I quickly determined that I would try to kill them in the above order.
Talic whirlwinded my merc and instantly had us Amp cursed. "You think that Amp curse scares me?" I asked. "Well, you're damn right it does! But how do you like this?" I cast a level 17 Battle Cry which lowers enemy damage by 41%. Battle Cry, the anti-Amp. I also staticed Korlic and Talic down to half before engaging Korlic full-tilt.
The biggest task of battling the Ancients is killing your first one. It's like their power goes as the square of the number of Ancients there are. I would love to show you screenshot after screenshot of the epic battle that ensued at this point, but I was too busy quaffing potions, giving my merc potions, teleporting to position my merc to attack Korlic, and teleporting away to escape and refresh my potion belt to take more than the above screenshot.
The battle was hard, but the damage we were taking was manageable. We weren't in any danger of being one or two-hit killed. On the first hit on me or my merc, I'd quaff or give my merc one or two red potions. When we received enough damage to get down to about 1/3 health, I'd quaff or give my merc a full rejuv. After we'd used 4-6 full rejuvs, I'd teleport over to a stash of potions and refresh my belt. I didn't want to have an empty belt when the computer decided to clean up the potions.
In less time than I expected, Grizabella and her merc killed Korlic. At that moment, I knew that Grizabella had the upper hand.
At that point, I switched my attention to Madawc, since he wasn't fire immune, but I had a devil of a time killing him. As the thrower, he likes to move away from anybody meleeing him and throw his axes from a distance. The battle raged all over.
The problem was that I would teleport on top of Madawc and my merc would get a jab in on him. Then, Talic would come by and whirlwind us and distract the merc. Meanwhile, Madawc would move back and start throwing at us. I didn't like this situation. We weren't doing enough damage to Madawc and Talic was getting free shots on us. I figured I had 75% block. I could take whatever Madawc threw at me. Time to switch targets.