11-08-2003, 12:44 PM
I started a Trap Assassin. Never played an Assassin past normal before, but I like it a lot. She's now level 74, in Act 3 hell. Pretty much all solo. I killed Hell Andy in a party, but I don't think I would have had much trouble by myself, especially considering the absolute spanking I gave Duriel solo.
The plan was to max Lit. Sentry and invest in some synergies, and use Blade Fury and Venom to kill lightning immunes. But I have to say all my points in venom (8 or so) were wasted, and would have been better spent in synergies or Shadow Master. Death Sentry is the cure for lightning immues, and Blade Fury hardly helps at all with generating corpses. I haven't yet run into an area with no lightning vulnerable monsters, so I just build up a critical mass of vulnerable corpses with lightning and then drop a few death sentries. It would be real slow going with wall to wall lightning immunes, I'd have to rely on cloak of shadows and mind blast to hold off the hordes while the merc kills stuff and I mess around with my lower resist wand (which hasn't worked for me very well at all so far).
I don't know how my killing speed compares to other characters, but it seems prety fast to me, and she's a very sturdy character. I've only died once in hell, to a very nasty stair trap on level one of the viper temple. After throwing down your traps you don't have much to do other than avoid monsters, so you don't take a lot of damage unless you get cornered. I think this is a very viable character in hell, even solo, but I think the Ancients are going to be a solid brick wall. I'll probably be able to kill Korlic and Talic, but Madawc is lit immune and there will be no corpses around (other than my merc's :) ). Lower resist might be my only chance. I had a hell of a time with him in nightmare. He totally ignored my shadow 90% of the time, and blade fury only connected on about 1 out of 15 shots.
Hell seemed pretty hard to me at first, probably since my character owned, terrorized, and dominated everything in nightmare (except gloams and Madawc). I was getting my butt kicked (well, my merc's butt) in the cold plains over and over, and I thought I'd be relagated to nightmare forever, but I was just playing stupid. Once I realized my mistakes it became a ton easier. Here's hoping I can make Matriarch without total reliance on a party, because I'd feel pretty stupid if I talked up my character like this only to find she couldn't hack it in late hell.
The plan was to max Lit. Sentry and invest in some synergies, and use Blade Fury and Venom to kill lightning immunes. But I have to say all my points in venom (8 or so) were wasted, and would have been better spent in synergies or Shadow Master. Death Sentry is the cure for lightning immues, and Blade Fury hardly helps at all with generating corpses. I haven't yet run into an area with no lightning vulnerable monsters, so I just build up a critical mass of vulnerable corpses with lightning and then drop a few death sentries. It would be real slow going with wall to wall lightning immunes, I'd have to rely on cloak of shadows and mind blast to hold off the hordes while the merc kills stuff and I mess around with my lower resist wand (which hasn't worked for me very well at all so far).
I don't know how my killing speed compares to other characters, but it seems prety fast to me, and she's a very sturdy character. I've only died once in hell, to a very nasty stair trap on level one of the viper temple. After throwing down your traps you don't have much to do other than avoid monsters, so you don't take a lot of damage unless you get cornered. I think this is a very viable character in hell, even solo, but I think the Ancients are going to be a solid brick wall. I'll probably be able to kill Korlic and Talic, but Madawc is lit immune and there will be no corpses around (other than my merc's :) ). Lower resist might be my only chance. I had a hell of a time with him in nightmare. He totally ignored my shadow 90% of the time, and blade fury only connected on about 1 out of 15 shots.
Hell seemed pretty hard to me at first, probably since my character owned, terrorized, and dominated everything in nightmare (except gloams and Madawc). I was getting my butt kicked (well, my merc's butt) in the cold plains over and over, and I thought I'd be relagated to nightmare forever, but I was just playing stupid. Once I realized my mistakes it became a ton easier. Here's hoping I can make Matriarch without total reliance on a party, because I'd feel pretty stupid if I talked up my character like this only to find she couldn't hack it in late hell.