09-21-2003, 11:14 PM
MALDAR: ACT IV, THE CHAOS SANCTUARY -- PREFACE
While planning Maldar's build, I made a list of the places I felt Maldar would have the most difficulty dealing with. The list I came up with, starting with the most difficult places was:
1. The Chaos Sanctuary
2. The Throne of Destruction
3. The Frozen River
4. The Ancients
5. Nihlathak's Temple
6. The Arcane Sanctuary
7. The Countess's Tower
8. The Spider Cavern
There's a poll on diabloii.net where people can guess how far Maldar will get without dying and 21% of people there said that Maldar would die to the Ancients while only 4% said that he'd die in Act IV. That's crazy. Even if Maldar makes it past the Chaos Sanctuary, I'll tip my cap to those who said he wouldn't get past Act IV, because I think they gave the most thought to the challenges that face a pacifist character, especially one built like Maldar. The Chaos Sanctuary is filled with monsters that Maldar is not allowed to kill and as if that weren't enough, it is also guarded by oblivian knights who can be thought of as "honorary bosses." They can't be Dim Visioned or Terrified, and while they can be imprisoned, they can shoot right through Bone Prisons with their Bone Spirits.
So, to me, the Chaos Sanctuary is the game. Sure, Act V will present plenty of challenges, but the Chaos Sanctuary is Maldar's biggest hurdle, and I wasn't going to mess around while dealing with it.
The first part of my plan for tackling the Chaos Sanctuary was creating space to park monsters. I wanted to try to thin out the number of monsters in the Chaos Sanctuary as much as I could. As you'll recall, the game in which I killed Hephasto had stranglers, corpulents, and grotesques in the River of Flame. I was tired by the time I reached the River of Flame waypoint, so I was tempted to turn the game off and take a break for a while. But I thought that this was a pretty good monster roll, so I decided to continue on.
![[Image: Maldar4_chaos1.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar4_chaos1.jpg)
I pushed back the monsters below the River of Flame waypoint using Dim Vision and Terror and then I started herding monsters from the bridges between the waypoint and the Chaos Sanctuary down to the newly vacated space. The corpulents and stranglers were easy to herd, because they aggressively chased me to their parking spaces. It was especially easy to ditch stranglers, since I was able to use the technique I used on the ghosts in the arcane sanctuary. I led the stranglers as far as I was willing to go, Dim Visioned them, got behind them, cast Terror on them and then the moment they get off screen (they run away fast), I cast Dim Vision on the edge of the screen. The stranglers usually kept running and I rarely saw them again.
However, the grotesques were a big problem. I couldn't afford to just let them chase me, because that would also allow them to pump out little baby worms. So instead, I had to herd them by getting behind them and alternatively casting Terror and Dim Vision on them. This would've been fine, except that the bridge area of the River of Flame has lots of small nitch dead ends and corners. It was a constant annoying struggle to herd grotesques through the bridge maze, and if I didn't keep up the casting just right, the grotesques seemed to take every opportunity they were given to pump out baby worms.
![[Image: Maldar4_chaos2.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar4_chaos2.jpg)
At first, the going wasn't too bad, but the farther I progressed up the bridge area also meant the farther through the maze of bridges I had to herd those annoying grotesques. Also the more progress I made, the more tired I got and I found myself making more mistakes which allowed the grotesques to pump out more worms -- forcing me to make even more long herding trips. In addition, the monsters I had parked below the waypoint looked like they were going to start a "jailbreak" at any time. Every time I herded a monster toward them, I had to use Dim Vision and Terror to force the monsters back. I foolishly used Bone Prison a few times, but that just encouraged the grotesques attacking the Bone Prisons to pump out dozens of extra worms which made the situation worse.
After an hour and forty-five minutes, I had progressed only 2/3rds of the way toward the Chaos Sanctuary. It was getting late, and I hadn't even started dealing with the Chaos Sanctuary itself. This was too much even for my patience. I needed to plan my assault on the Chaos Sanctuary more carefully and perhaps reroll the River of Flame monsters a few times to get something I liked. I also needed to start the assault when I had a full evening to devote to it. I exited the game and turned the computer off.
UP NEXT: The Assault on the Chaos Sanctuary
While planning Maldar's build, I made a list of the places I felt Maldar would have the most difficulty dealing with. The list I came up with, starting with the most difficult places was:
1. The Chaos Sanctuary
2. The Throne of Destruction
3. The Frozen River
4. The Ancients
5. Nihlathak's Temple
6. The Arcane Sanctuary
7. The Countess's Tower
8. The Spider Cavern
There's a poll on diabloii.net where people can guess how far Maldar will get without dying and 21% of people there said that Maldar would die to the Ancients while only 4% said that he'd die in Act IV. That's crazy. Even if Maldar makes it past the Chaos Sanctuary, I'll tip my cap to those who said he wouldn't get past Act IV, because I think they gave the most thought to the challenges that face a pacifist character, especially one built like Maldar. The Chaos Sanctuary is filled with monsters that Maldar is not allowed to kill and as if that weren't enough, it is also guarded by oblivian knights who can be thought of as "honorary bosses." They can't be Dim Visioned or Terrified, and while they can be imprisoned, they can shoot right through Bone Prisons with their Bone Spirits.
So, to me, the Chaos Sanctuary is the game. Sure, Act V will present plenty of challenges, but the Chaos Sanctuary is Maldar's biggest hurdle, and I wasn't going to mess around while dealing with it.
The first part of my plan for tackling the Chaos Sanctuary was creating space to park monsters. I wanted to try to thin out the number of monsters in the Chaos Sanctuary as much as I could. As you'll recall, the game in which I killed Hephasto had stranglers, corpulents, and grotesques in the River of Flame. I was tired by the time I reached the River of Flame waypoint, so I was tempted to turn the game off and take a break for a while. But I thought that this was a pretty good monster roll, so I decided to continue on.
I pushed back the monsters below the River of Flame waypoint using Dim Vision and Terror and then I started herding monsters from the bridges between the waypoint and the Chaos Sanctuary down to the newly vacated space. The corpulents and stranglers were easy to herd, because they aggressively chased me to their parking spaces. It was especially easy to ditch stranglers, since I was able to use the technique I used on the ghosts in the arcane sanctuary. I led the stranglers as far as I was willing to go, Dim Visioned them, got behind them, cast Terror on them and then the moment they get off screen (they run away fast), I cast Dim Vision on the edge of the screen. The stranglers usually kept running and I rarely saw them again.
However, the grotesques were a big problem. I couldn't afford to just let them chase me, because that would also allow them to pump out little baby worms. So instead, I had to herd them by getting behind them and alternatively casting Terror and Dim Vision on them. This would've been fine, except that the bridge area of the River of Flame has lots of small nitch dead ends and corners. It was a constant annoying struggle to herd grotesques through the bridge maze, and if I didn't keep up the casting just right, the grotesques seemed to take every opportunity they were given to pump out baby worms.
At first, the going wasn't too bad, but the farther I progressed up the bridge area also meant the farther through the maze of bridges I had to herd those annoying grotesques. Also the more progress I made, the more tired I got and I found myself making more mistakes which allowed the grotesques to pump out more worms -- forcing me to make even more long herding trips. In addition, the monsters I had parked below the waypoint looked like they were going to start a "jailbreak" at any time. Every time I herded a monster toward them, I had to use Dim Vision and Terror to force the monsters back. I foolishly used Bone Prison a few times, but that just encouraged the grotesques attacking the Bone Prisons to pump out dozens of extra worms which made the situation worse.
After an hour and forty-five minutes, I had progressed only 2/3rds of the way toward the Chaos Sanctuary. It was getting late, and I hadn't even started dealing with the Chaos Sanctuary itself. This was too much even for my patience. I needed to plan my assault on the Chaos Sanctuary more carefully and perhaps reroll the River of Flame monsters a few times to get something I liked. I also needed to start the assault when I had a full evening to devote to it. I exited the game and turned the computer off.
UP NEXT: The Assault on the Chaos Sanctuary