09-14-2003, 07:21 AM
MALDAR: ACT 1, PART II
In the process of saving Cain, Maldar came upon an old moldy tree with an aura of magic about it. Investigating more closely, he found that it contained a book that told of a solitary tower that stood above the ruins of the once mighty castle of the evil Countess who had been buried alive. The book claimed that the tower was infested with all sorts of wicked monsters and also contained within it the vast wealth of the Countess.
"So, you escaped your entombment," said Maldar. "I knew I should have made sure you were really dead. It sounds like you're back to your old tricks again. It's time I paid you a visit and finished what I started."
![[Image: Maldar1_tower.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar1_tower.jpg)
It's difficult to describe the intensity of playing a character like this. Blind and imprison the monsters and run past them. It sounds easy. But in narrow enclosed spaces, you can't zone out for even a moment. You have to be constantly aware of what's around you. You have to be thinking about what could lie ahead -- perhaps a boss or champion pack or a swarm of monsters in a small room --, what you left behind that could wake up from Dim Vision and come after you, and where you'd escape to if you need room to maneuver or park monsters.
Before I created Maldar, I made a test character using Nobbie's 99th level characters. I wanted to experiment a little to try to figure out what curses and skills I'd need and how many points should be placed into various skills to be useful in hell. I tried out the Countess's Tower, the Arcane Sanctuary, and the Crystaline Passage in order to see what playing in narrow corridors would be like. Besides finding out that this character build would be both really really hard and really really fun, I found out an interesting tactical point: in indoor areas, it's best to keep the bone prisons to a minimum.
When I started playing my test character, my strategy in the Countess's tower was to Dim Vision monsters, cast several bone prisons around them, sneak by the monsters, and then cast bone prisons behind me to make sure I wouldn't be followed. That worked well up until I ran into champion packs in narrow spaces or worse in dead ends and I found myself trapped with no place to go. My test character died three times in the tower because of this, and I started wondering if this character build was workable.
Then I tried to using bone prisons sparingly and then suddenly things became a lot easier. Doing so meant that I had to remember to cast Dim Vision behind me if I got delayed somewhere, but because I stopped using bone prison so much, I had a lot more room to maneuver.
The other reason why the Countess's Tower was so tough for my test character was that fact that it has lots of ghosts in it. Why is that important? It's important because ghosts fly right through bone prisons and walls without hindrance. So if you run into a champion ghost pack or the worst, an extra fast ghost boss pack, you're pretty much hosed because you can't Dim Vision them and you can't imprison them.
Well, not quite. True, you can decrepify them and try to out run them, but that's tough. However, there's one more cute trick that I found by accident. If you cast several bone prisons in a room with the ghosts and then tp to town, the ghosts will switch to attacking the bone prison. When you come back through the townportal, they'll keep attacking the prison and you can then book it out of there. It's best to do this in a place where you know it would be safe to park the ghosts and where you know you can run a decent distance without being slowed down by other monsters.
![[Image: Maldar1_countess.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar1_countess.jpg)
After dodging many monsters and parking several ghost packs, I managed to get to the countess's chamber, spam the place with bone prisons, and kill the countess. I got a Tal and Tir. Oh, well. If I was going to get low level runes, at least I got a Tir, so I can try crafting another wand the next time I get a chance to break out a perfect amethyst from my mule.
Just to add insult to injury, I kept all of the Countess's minions Dim Visioned, let the bone prisons expire, and then picked up all of the gold from the chest and from the two side chambers in the 5th level of the tower. There was a boss pack of ghosts down there, so it was especially gratifying to snatch all the treasure under the monsters' noses (or what's left of their noses).
![[Image: Maldar1_malus.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar1_malus.jpg)
After dealing with the countess, it was time to set off for the monastery. Everything worked pretty straightforwardly. One kind of cool thing about Dim Vision is that it works through walls and doors -- kind of like an amazon's Slow Missiles. Before opening a door, you can cast Dim Vision in front of it and the effect will spread out into the next room. That way, all the monsters will already be blinded and you can run past them. If you don't do that, then the monsters will see you and start rushing you. If you then blind them, many of them will keep rushing you until they're forced to make their next "decision" by running into something, for example. It's much better to blind monsters before opening doors.
![[Image: Maldar1_andariel.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar1_andariel.jpg)
I made my way down to Andariel's lair. It turned out to be one of the easier fights I've had with Andariel, since her poison attacks were completely blocked by the spammed bone prisons. I did have one little scare when I accidentally bone prisoned myself next to a boss zombie and I couldn't get out. I had to sit there and wait 24 seconds for the bone prison to expire -- refreshing my bone armor and quaffing red potions the whole time. You can't unsummon bone prisons or walls, unfortunately. Once the prison finally collapsed, I rushed out of there, cast new bone prisons on the zombie and everything else and finished off Andariel.
No, I didn't get any good items from Andariel or in the entire Act. It's tough to find good items when all you can do is open chests and kill quest bosses.
Act 1 Quest Screen
Act 1 Waypoint Screen
When Maldar returned to camp after defeating the evil queen Andariel, the rogues held celebrations that were mixed with joy and wonder. Truly a living legend was walking among them and had saved their lives, homes, and families. They tried to find ways to express their gratitude, but all attempts seemed to fall short of the way they felt.
Maldar accepted their gratitude but turned down all offered gifts for he said, "Living your lives with kindness and compassion will be reward enough." He bade them farewell for he and Cain were going to travel to the city of Lut Gholein where reports said that Diablo had recently passed through. Will Maldar, the Magnificent, be able to stop Diablo before it's too late?
In the process of saving Cain, Maldar came upon an old moldy tree with an aura of magic about it. Investigating more closely, he found that it contained a book that told of a solitary tower that stood above the ruins of the once mighty castle of the evil Countess who had been buried alive. The book claimed that the tower was infested with all sorts of wicked monsters and also contained within it the vast wealth of the Countess.
"So, you escaped your entombment," said Maldar. "I knew I should have made sure you were really dead. It sounds like you're back to your old tricks again. It's time I paid you a visit and finished what I started."
It's difficult to describe the intensity of playing a character like this. Blind and imprison the monsters and run past them. It sounds easy. But in narrow enclosed spaces, you can't zone out for even a moment. You have to be constantly aware of what's around you. You have to be thinking about what could lie ahead -- perhaps a boss or champion pack or a swarm of monsters in a small room --, what you left behind that could wake up from Dim Vision and come after you, and where you'd escape to if you need room to maneuver or park monsters.
Before I created Maldar, I made a test character using Nobbie's 99th level characters. I wanted to experiment a little to try to figure out what curses and skills I'd need and how many points should be placed into various skills to be useful in hell. I tried out the Countess's Tower, the Arcane Sanctuary, and the Crystaline Passage in order to see what playing in narrow corridors would be like. Besides finding out that this character build would be both really really hard and really really fun, I found out an interesting tactical point: in indoor areas, it's best to keep the bone prisons to a minimum.
When I started playing my test character, my strategy in the Countess's tower was to Dim Vision monsters, cast several bone prisons around them, sneak by the monsters, and then cast bone prisons behind me to make sure I wouldn't be followed. That worked well up until I ran into champion packs in narrow spaces or worse in dead ends and I found myself trapped with no place to go. My test character died three times in the tower because of this, and I started wondering if this character build was workable.
Then I tried to using bone prisons sparingly and then suddenly things became a lot easier. Doing so meant that I had to remember to cast Dim Vision behind me if I got delayed somewhere, but because I stopped using bone prison so much, I had a lot more room to maneuver.
The other reason why the Countess's Tower was so tough for my test character was that fact that it has lots of ghosts in it. Why is that important? It's important because ghosts fly right through bone prisons and walls without hindrance. So if you run into a champion ghost pack or the worst, an extra fast ghost boss pack, you're pretty much hosed because you can't Dim Vision them and you can't imprison them.
Well, not quite. True, you can decrepify them and try to out run them, but that's tough. However, there's one more cute trick that I found by accident. If you cast several bone prisons in a room with the ghosts and then tp to town, the ghosts will switch to attacking the bone prison. When you come back through the townportal, they'll keep attacking the prison and you can then book it out of there. It's best to do this in a place where you know it would be safe to park the ghosts and where you know you can run a decent distance without being slowed down by other monsters.
After dodging many monsters and parking several ghost packs, I managed to get to the countess's chamber, spam the place with bone prisons, and kill the countess. I got a Tal and Tir. Oh, well. If I was going to get low level runes, at least I got a Tir, so I can try crafting another wand the next time I get a chance to break out a perfect amethyst from my mule.
Just to add insult to injury, I kept all of the Countess's minions Dim Visioned, let the bone prisons expire, and then picked up all of the gold from the chest and from the two side chambers in the 5th level of the tower. There was a boss pack of ghosts down there, so it was especially gratifying to snatch all the treasure under the monsters' noses (or what's left of their noses).
After dealing with the countess, it was time to set off for the monastery. Everything worked pretty straightforwardly. One kind of cool thing about Dim Vision is that it works through walls and doors -- kind of like an amazon's Slow Missiles. Before opening a door, you can cast Dim Vision in front of it and the effect will spread out into the next room. That way, all the monsters will already be blinded and you can run past them. If you don't do that, then the monsters will see you and start rushing you. If you then blind them, many of them will keep rushing you until they're forced to make their next "decision" by running into something, for example. It's much better to blind monsters before opening doors.
I made my way down to Andariel's lair. It turned out to be one of the easier fights I've had with Andariel, since her poison attacks were completely blocked by the spammed bone prisons. I did have one little scare when I accidentally bone prisoned myself next to a boss zombie and I couldn't get out. I had to sit there and wait 24 seconds for the bone prison to expire -- refreshing my bone armor and quaffing red potions the whole time. You can't unsummon bone prisons or walls, unfortunately. Once the prison finally collapsed, I rushed out of there, cast new bone prisons on the zombie and everything else and finished off Andariel.
No, I didn't get any good items from Andariel or in the entire Act. It's tough to find good items when all you can do is open chests and kill quest bosses.
Act 1 Quest Screen
Act 1 Waypoint Screen
When Maldar returned to camp after defeating the evil queen Andariel, the rogues held celebrations that were mixed with joy and wonder. Truly a living legend was walking among them and had saved their lives, homes, and families. They tried to find ways to express their gratitude, but all attempts seemed to fall short of the way they felt.
Maldar accepted their gratitude but turned down all offered gifts for he said, "Living your lives with kindness and compassion will be reward enough." He bade them farewell for he and Cain were going to travel to the city of Lut Gholein where reports said that Diablo had recently passed through. Will Maldar, the Magnificent, be able to stop Diablo before it's too late?