Grizabella, the Realistic Fighter Mage

[MongoJerry]

GRIZABELLA: COWS Part I

When preparing to do the cows, I didn't know what to expect. On the one hand, part of me said that it could easy, since the Confuse on 'Delirium' should prevent hordes of cows from swarming Grizabella. On the other hand, 10% of voters in the poll thought that Grizabella would meet her end in the cow level and doubts were creeping into my mind. I had only done the 1.10 cows once and that was with a twinked up character. Maybe the voters knew something I didn't.

My general plan of attack when meeting a pack of cows was as follows:


Plan A:

1. Teleport and/or run up to the first cow in the pack and start hacking to start up the Confuse.
2. Teleport back to get myself and my merc out of the way and get all the cows attacking each other.
3. Find places on the edges of the pack where a cow or two could be faced alone and pick it/them off.
4. Teleport backwards to quaff some reds for both merc and myself in order to conserve purple potions (I went in with two rows of reds and two rows of purples).
5. Rejoin the battle and repeat steps 3-4 until the pack is killed.
6. TP to town in a safe spot to replenish potion supplies as necessary. If necessary, return to the Secret Cow Level through the red portal which will always remain comfortably clear of cows.

Plan B:

1. If plan A breaks down, improvise.




Plan A was a good plan wasn't it? It wasn't without its danger, because you still have to get that first series of hits to start up the Confuse and even Confused cows will attack you and hit you hard if you're near them. But it was a good plan. It was a simple plan. And as you can see in the above screenshot, the plan started off well. And goodness, I managed to kill almost three cows with it.

But then something changed. Something came into the picture. A harbinger of doom. An orange harbinger of doom, in fact.



The cows hit hard enough as it was. I sure as heck didn't want to see a crowd of fanat cows. I was to find out later that this fanat aura enchanted boss was also Amp cursed. Not only could this boss make the cows hit harder and faster but he could also take the Confuse curse off the pack.

I dodged right, and that's about the end of my clear recollection of my actions for the next 10 minutes. I'm staring at a series of screenshots and trying to match it with what I remember. I'm sure that if D2 replay were possible, my next series of moves would look like they were conducted by a panicked drunk.



I dodged right not only to avoid the fanat boss but also because I saw that to the right, the walls made a V-shaped corner. I figured it would be a little easier if the cows could only come from one direction. I was able to kill a couple more cows before the fanat aura started creeping its way that way. Cows came in from the top and right as well. I'm not sure if the minion I am attacking in the screenshot is one of the fanat boss's minions or a minion from another boss. There were several bosses in the area.



I teleported past the pack to avoid any entanglements with fanat cows. I Confused a couple of packs of cows in the top corner and managed to kill two or three cows before I had to start up a tp in the corner and go back to town to refresh my potions.

And, oh yes, that is yet another boss pack you see there. It didn't even register in my mind that I was attacking a minion during this battle. I would later find out that there were five boss packs in the general area:

Star Maim the Unholy -- Immune to Lightning, Lightning Enchanted, Spectral Hit, Mana Burn
Puke Bite -- Immune to Cold, Teleportation, Cold Enchanted, Spectral Hit
Soul Cloud the Sharp -- Immune to Lightning, Lightning Enchanted, Aura Enchanted (holy shock), Spectral Hit
Warp Jade the Howler -- Cursed (Amp), Extra Strong, Magic Resistant
Steel Fang -- Aura Enchanted (fanat), Cursed (Amp), Magic Resistant