Irene, the Infirm

[MongoJerry]

IRENE, THE INFIRM

While Irene, the sorceress apprentice, had a sickly pale face, her heart was full of strength and vigor. Her parents, who suspected that their daughter's time in Sanctuary would soon come to an end, sent her to study at the Rogue Monastery in the vain hope that intellectual stimulus would help their daughter stave off the mysterious illness that had been plaguing her.

Irene had just begun studying magic under the watchful eye of Akara, the head of the Rogue Order, when the Rogue Monastery was attacked by the forces of Andariel. Irene, Akara, and a few Rogues escaped and created a camp surrounded by a crude wooden barricade to shelter the remnants of the once proud Rogue Order from Andariel's hordes. However, everyone knew that their safety was only temporary, since scouts had reported that monsters were massing for an attack in a cave just outside of the camp.

At this point, Irene strolled up to Akara and in between fits of coughing announced, "I'm ready to go out and fight demons now. Where should I start?"

"But you don't know how to cast any spells!" said a stunned Akara. "In fact, we don't even know if you're capable of harnessing magical energies at all."

"That's OK," said Irene. "I'll figure something out."

"But you don't have any equipment," stammered Akara, "and you haven't been trained in even the basics of combat with weapons and armor."

"No problem," said Irene. "I grew up with brothers. I've learned how to deal a few punches. *cough* People say I have a nasty right hook. *cough* *cough*"

"But, what about your constitution?" responded Akara. "You can barely stand! How are you going to be able to fight?"

"Don't worry about me," said Irene. "I'll be fine. You'll see. I think I'll head out of camp now and punch some sense into some of the quill rats and zombies out there."

And so Irene, the Infirm, walked out of camp, while a disbelieving Akara could only stand there and watch.


A few days ago, Blackstrean started a thread titled "How underpowered can you go?" at diabloii.net in which he described the adventures of his assassin who never assigned a stat or skill point and yet made it through all of Act I normal. It was a fun post to read, and it got me thinking, "How underpowered can you go?" I think I have the answer: a fully naked, no skill or stat points assigned, punching sorceress.

The result is Irene, the Infirm. The rules she'll follow are:

1. No skill or stat points may ever be assigned.
2. She plays fully naked, including no charms or jewelry.
3. She plays in /player 1 mode.
4. She must get all waypoints and fulfill all quests in game order.
5. If she actually gets that far, any mercenary she gets must play naked as well.
6. She plays hardcore.

She does 1-2 points with her punches, and that's all the damage she will ever do. She will have life of 39+level, and that's all the life she'll ever have to work with.

So, feel free to speculate on how far she'll get. This should be fun, because obviously she's not going to make it all the way. However, it'll be fun to see how far she can get. And, even better, anybody can start their own characters at home and see if they can get farther than Irene does.

Yes, this is a silly character. I have another character of the Grizabella/Gunter/Maldar type who's in Act V normal right now. I don't know how long it'll take me to level up this character, because I'm awfully busy with homework right now. So, I figured I'd offer up this character as something to amuse people in the meantime.

Enjoy!

[Sporky Smurf]

I've done this before. However I did assign stats/skills. Used Enchant/Teleport like a crazy wench. The first 18 levels were torture. I barrrrrey scrapped by while chugging behind a Merc with a lucky gambled bow.

I say you'll die at in Tristram to a volley of arrows by Skellie Archers.

[Kartoffelsalat]

Sounds like you'er hardest build yet! I'm guessing you can get through part of act two, maybe further because you're merc will be doing most of (read: all) the work. Better start stocking potions and TP scrolls!

My official wager is dying in the Arcane Sanctuary.

[Crystalion]

So, feel free to speculate on how far she'll get.  This should be fun, because obviously she's not going to make it all the way.

Since you have to do the quests, and in order, the relevant must-kill-for-quest "death points" are...

Blood Raven
The Countess
Andariel

Andy herself is actually "easy" because, as an act boss, she doesn't regen (my definition of "easy" is very very loose for this odd situation). In any event, a fire/cold arrow hireling with liberal use of Town Portal (and $ for resurrection) can in principle nail her. She is also an interesting case because a v1.10 antidote potion pre-battle will help you and your rogue hireling a lot.

My impression of your skills is too high to imagine Blood Raven, as annoying as she is, will stop you.

So the real issue is whether the messy add-on monsters for the Countess and Andy are impassable (I imagine you'll tank while your rogue nibbles them to death at range)... the Andariel chamber shaman are priority kills, but I can (barely) imagine you slapping them to death.

However, in another thread, it has recently been discussed that (at least in v1.10s) hirelings do *not* get the displayed damage bonus when they do not have a weapon equiped. Therefore your hireling is doomed to have weenie damage output, as do you. Therefore my bet is that you will actually be stopped by the Countess quest.

[MongoJerry]

Sounds like you'er hardest build yet! I'm guessing you can get through part of act two, maybe further because you're merc will be doing most of (read: all) the work. Better start stocking potions and TP scrolls!

Keep in mind that the merc, should Irene be able to get one, will be playing naked, too. So, the merc will be doing like 1-4 damage per arrow -- and probably won't be able to shoot as often as Irene punches, so their damage output will probably balance out.

[BlackLightning]

MongoJerry,
This is pure genius! I really like the idea of a naked sorceress running around killing stuff.... :ph34r: . Are you going to play her on battle.net or single player? If you ever play on battle.net, and end up killing someone, please post it! It would be a great laugh!

I'm guessing your sorceress will probably get to the end of Act III, and get killed by the High Council, or Mephisto. If she manages to beat them however, I'm pretty sure she'll die in the Chaos Sanctuary to those damn Oblivion Knights....

Again, cheers on the excellent idea, and good hunting!

[MongoJerry]

This is pure genius! I really like the idea of a naked sorceress running around killing stuff....  . Are you going to play her on battle.net or single player? If you ever play on battle.net, and end up killing someone, please post it! It would be a great laugh!

Thanks! Nah, this'll be single player, because I'm testing things out with 1.10s which can't be played on bnet yet. Anyway, my internet connection is a dial-up modem, and I'm tired of losing characters to lag or disconnects. At least in single player, when I die, I know it's my own dang fault!

I'm guessing your sorceress will probably get to the end of Act III, and get killed by the High Council, or Mephisto. If she manages to beat them however, I'm pretty sure she'll die in the Chaos Sanctuary to those damn Oblivion Knights....

You've got to be kidding! I know the regen rate of monsters has increased lot in 1.10s, but I didn't think it was that much. I know somewhere in the middle of Act I, I'm going to get to the point where even normal monsters heal faster than I'll be able to damage them. I don't know exactly where, though. I suppose I'll find out. I'll be happy if I manage to rescue Cain. Heck, Corpsefire (who heals) and Blood Raven will be tough enough!

[jahcs]

Treehead woodfist and his goons around the tree of inifus were tough for my barbarian who had no skill or stat points and was only allowed throwing potions, healing potions, and town portal scrolls. Coldcrow was an excercise in patience too.

[Nadreck]

I decided to try doing the same after reading this thread but I'm having trouble with corpsefire. It looks like the den of evil is too hard a quest for me :(
Edit: I've thought of a strategy now: If I can't beat corpsefire on my own, I can do bloody runs (blood moor that is) until I reach a high enough level to get a mercenary without the blood raven quest. I may not be defeated after all.
Edit #2:By the way MongoJerry, I think you underestimate the power of a naked mercenary... IIRC they do way more damage than a charmless naked character.
Edit #3: ok, fought corpsefire again and this time he didn't seem to be regenerating for some reason. So, one quest done.

[whyBish]

Hmmm... I expect death by boredom, or a boredom related issue :) (i.e. trying to get in a killing blow when pots have run out) Staying alive shouldn't be an issue.. I'm guessing death by countess at level 5 ... do the limbo :P

--Edit:
Quote whole post = bad.

[MongoJerry]

However, in another thread, it has recently been discussed that (at least in v1.10s) hirelings do *not* get the displayed damage bonus when they do not have a weapon equiped. Therefore your hireling is doomed to have weenie damage output, as do you.

Sorry, I missed this thread. What bonus don't they get? Do they not do their elemental damage attack? Or do they not get their dexterity bonus?

[Nadreck]

With MalahClone (my version of Irene) I have just defeated Blood Raven. As far as I can tell she (Blood Raven) never regenerated, despite sometimes having life steal swirlies. Almost every time I left the area she changed elemental damage type.
Now I am entitled to receive a merc, but instead I'm going to try to go as far as possible without using a cheesy overpowered naked merc.
Edit: Argh lol I reflexively clicked on kashya when i reentered the game and saw her wanting to speak... now what do I do?

[MongoJerry]

IRENE: BLOOD MOOR/DEN OF EVIL



Irene stepped out into the Blood Moor and promptly began punching the daylights out of every monster she found.



As you can see, she was not adverse to fighting dirty. Whatever it took to get the job done was good enough for her. She did a full clear of the Blood Moor and got to level 3 (42 hit points! Woohoo!) before she dropped down into the Den of Evil.



Inside the Den of Evil, some gargantuan beasts tried to bully her around, but a couple of sucker punches to their stomachs took the fight out of them. Normal monsters were handled easily, because Irene dealt enough damage to cause them to go into hit recovery. If she makes it out of the Den of Evil, that won't last for long.

She came across a monster shrine. Should I? Shouldn't I? Why not?



Doh!

Oh, well. Irene had to quaff a couple of potions and play hit-and-run for a bit, but she took down the lightning enchanted fallen. She then finished clearing out the Den of Evil of all monsters except Corpsefire's pack.

The first reaction I had when taking on one of Corpsefire's minions was, "Ouch! That guy hurts!" Worse, the minion could send Irene into hit recovery while conversely Irene couldn't damage him enough to send him into hit recovery. Egads. I developed a couple of techniques for fighting the minions, however, so I managed to take them down while only quaffing 1-2 potions each. I'll discuss those techniques when I describe the fight with Corpsefire.

[MongoJerry]

IRENE: CORPSEFIRE



Once Irene finished killing the minions, all that was left to do was kill Corpsefire. As other people have mentioned, Corpsefire regenerates life and hits hard. Plus, he's spectral hit, so sometimes he can hit you with a cold attack that can make it impossible to hit him. (By the time you slowly try to take a swing at him, he'll hit you again and interrupt your attack).

He hit so hard that Irene had to quaff a lot of potions. Since she could only hold four potions in her belt, however, that meant that after every four potions, she had to back off, open her inventory, move potions to her belt (shift-right click makes this faster), and resume fighting. In that time, Corpsefire regenerated life -- sometimes enough to heal all of the damage Irene could deliver during the previous attack.



However, I had discovered a couple of techniques for fighting zombies when I was dealing with Corpsefire's minions. The first technique is that if a zombie is walking toward you, you can shift-click to punch at the zombie as it's approaching. You can often get 1-2 free punches in before the zombie gets close enough to take swings at you. You can keep swinging until the zombie hits you a couple of times and gets you into a hit recovery/interrupt attack loop. Then, you can back off a tad and repeat the process.

The second technique involves fighting like a girl.



In other words, fighting dirty. (Whoever first used the phrase "You fight like a girl!" to mean that a person fights in a wimpy manner had never seen real girls fight). When you back off, sometimes zombies decide to wander aimlessly rather than chase you. This is your opportunity. Move just barely in range, and shift-click attack the zombie while its back is turned. Hit it in the back, hit it in the side, hit it any which way you can. However, do not move to right next to the zombie, since that would cause the zombie to turn and attack you. You can get in 4-5 free punches this way.



Irene had to quaff sixteen potions during the battle, but she finally took Corpsefire down and cleared the Den of Evil.

Irene returned to Akara and told her all about her adventures. Akara, amazed by the accomplishments of the young apprentice, offered to give Irene training in the skill of her choice. Irene thought for a moment and said, "Can you show me how to do a left hook? I don't think I'm doing it right."

[Pren]

When I opened the thread, I was hoping for a sorceress who used charms/elemental damage punches/shields. Or at least assigned points. I don't know how you'll kill andariel, act bosses do regenerate in 1.10. Or at least I remember diablo and baal regenerating on me.

Hey, does anybody know if players can punch for more than 1-2 damage now? If i recall correctly, even with +min/+max damage, your punches were always stuck at 1-2. Sounds like the thing where mercs don't get their level/stat based damage bonus.

[Obi2Kenobi]

This is the most underpowered you can get?? HA!

A no items at all (includes potions) sorc with no stats or skills that you can only play while blindfolded in 8 player games with everyone hostile to you (assumes you will make it to level 9) :lol:

[gekko]

On that note, has anyone actually tried the "friendly fire" variant? (for anyone who doesn't know, the rules are simple: it's a team variant where, after clvl 9, you all play hostile with one another, but try to work through the game cooperatively) I've heard about it, long wanted to try it, but never heard even a story or a rumour about a team making it through a single act, let alone hell difficulty.

Bonus points if you you've done it in HC. Nudist. With no stat or skill points assigned.

gekko

[dkass]

Since she could only hold four potions in her belt, however, that meant that after every four potions, she had to back off, open her inventory, move potions to her belt (shift-right click makes this faster), and resume fighting.

You do realize you can fight with your inventory open? Then you just need to right click on the potion to drink it. This doesn't work too well against multiple opponents or ranged attackers (due to hiding half the screen) but should be great for a situation like Corpsefire. The old drop the potions on the ground before starting the fight technique could also work here (I do know about the timer, but it would at least give you one or two belts of potions).

I can see this build needing to cart everything back to town to buy more potions and scrolls...

[MongoJerry]

You do realize you can fight with your inventory open? Then you just need to right click on the potion to drink it. This doesn't work too well against multiple opponents or ranged attackers (due to hiding half the screen) but should be great for a situation like Corpsefire. The old drop the potions on the ground before starting the fight technique could also work here (I do know about the timer, but it would at least give you one or two belts of potions).

I get so claustrophobic when I can only see half the screen, but the dropping potions on the ground idea could be useful. Thanks for the tip!

[MongoJerry]

IRENE: THE COLD PLAINS



After clearing the Den of Evil and returning to camp, Irene ran back through the Blood Moor to the Cold Plains. She said, "Hello!" to Flavie and came up with a plan. She led monsters near the entrance to the Cold Plains back to Flavie. After all, Irene could only do 1-2 points of damage per punch, so the extra 1 point of damage per arrow that Flavie could deliver increased the damage output significantly. This made Irene wonder if it was possible to lure Blood Raven there. Probably not.

(Incidentally, I tried casting Enchant on Flavie when I was playing Grizabella, but it didn't work. Too bad. It would've been cool to see Flavie dealing 1k damage).



But the whole Flavie plan turned out not to be worth it, so Irene bid Flavie a fond farewell and took on the rest of the monsters in the Cold Plains on her own.



In the Cold Plains, the only hitch Irene ran into was Bishibosh. Irene killed all of the fallen and fallen shaman around him and then focused her attention on Bishibosh himself. Unfortunately, he dealt a lot of damage with his fire enchantment, so it was touch and go there for a while. He couldn't quite kill Irene, but he healed so quickly that it was difficult for Irene to deal enough net damage to kill him. Plus, whenever Bishibosh got a chance (i.e. when Irene would back off to refresh her belt with potions from her inventory), he'd raise fallen from the dead who would distract Irene, allowing Bishibosh heal even more.

Irene felt that with enough persistence, she could eventually take down Bishibosh, but it wasn't worth it. She had an appointment with Blood Raven to keep, so she left Bishibosh alone. She vowed to return, however.

Not long after leaving Bishibosh, Irene became a fifth level sorceress.



She then made her way around the Cold Plains and found the Burial Grounds. First things first. She killed everything in the perimeter of the graveyard. Then, it was time to face Blood Raven.

UP NEXT: Blood Raven