Gunter, the Barbarian Mage

[MongoJerry]

After witnessing the surprising popularity of the adventures of Grizabella, I searched around for a new character to play whose adventures others might enjoy reading about. A couple of people on diabloii.net jokingly suggested that now that I had made a sorceress who fights with a sword that maybe I should make a barbarian who casts spells. I laughed and out of silliness I looked into the idea. At first I was skeptical, because the Trang-Oul's set is the only item that allows a barbarian to cast sorceress attack spells and it didn't seem powerful enough to kill things on its own. But then I noticed how all of the new barbarian Warcry synergies fit together and thought, "Hm... this might be possible -- really really hard, but possible...". As I thought about the character, I started creating a back story -- the misunderstood barbarian who always wanted to be a sorcerer but was laughed at by his family and tribe. When I realized that I kept coming back to the idea of this barbarian, I knew I had to play him.

The result is Gunter, the Barbarian Mage. He has focused exclusively on Warcries and passive barbarian skills. Except for the Trang-Oul's set that he was awarded on the completion of nightmare difficulty, he is completely untwinked and is using only equipment he found in the wilderness or bought from the shop. He's about to step into hell for the first time and I plan to keep everyone up to date on his progess like I did with Grizabella. I'll detail his specific build and equipment in my next post, but first here is his story.

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GUNTER, THE BARBARIAN MAGE

Gunter was a misunderstood barbarian. While his friends were honing their skills with weaponry, Gunter dreamed of becoming a powerful sorcerer. His friends ridiculed him and his father would hear none of Gunter's "ridiculous ideas" of studying magic. His father, an elder of Harrogath, was a powerful warrior in his day and felt that Gunter's antics were bringing shame on the family's house. The only one in Harrogath who seemed to understand Gunter's plight was the elderly Malah who had an unfulfilled dream of becoming a sorceress herself. She encouraged Gunter in his basic magical studies and told him not to give up on his dream.

Then came the day that changed Gunter's life forever. The head of the sorceress order, Esmerelda, came to visit Harrogath. Rumors of the rise of the Three Prime Evils was spreading and Esmerelda wanted to be sure that Harrogath was prepared to defend Mt. Arreat should the rumors turn out to be true. Malah introduced Gunter to Esmerelda and asked Esmerelda if she would allow Gunter to travel back with her to be tutored in the ways of magic. Esmerelda examined Gunter for a moment and delivered some terrible news. Gunter lacked the innate ability to harness the elements. Gunter could not study to become a sorcerer. Gunter was devastated by the news.

Esmerelda saw Gunter's reaction and took pity on him. She said, "There is another way you can become a sorcerer. The suits of armor worn by the legendary Trang-Oul can allow a person who cannot otherwise harness the elements to cast Firewalls under the feet of his opponents and cast Meteors down on his foes. The sorceress order has a set of this armor, but it is precious and cannot be given away lightly. You must go out into the world and perform deeds of courage and daring to prove your worthiness to wear the armor of Trang-Oul. But know this. If you are to become a sorcerer, you must eschew the combat skills and weapons masteries of your people. Instead, you may study only the passive skills and warcries that are native to your people for they have a magical element to them and will greatly aid you when you do become a sorcerer."

Gunter thanked Esmerelda profusely and immediately set out to demonstrate his worthiness to wear the legendary armor of Trang-Oul.









Gunter had many adventures and grew more powerful every day. While he may have used a sword or a mace to vanquish foes at times, Gunter heeded Esmerelda's warning not to study the weapon skills of his people. Eventually, his booming War Cry became so powerful that he abandoned the use of weapons entirely. At long last Gunter returned to Esmerelda and told her of his adventures. Esmerelda was impressed and true to her word, she presented Gunter with the legendary set of armor worn by Trang-Oul.

"You have performed mighty deeds indeed," said Esmerelda. "Your tale shows that greatness cannot be measured by power alone. One must also consider a person's courage and conviction. But I must warn you that the trials you have passed through are merely precursor to what lies ahead. Go now to the Rogue Monastery near Tristram. Rumors have spread that tell of unspeakable evil springing up in that fair land. These are dark times for Sanctuary. I suspect that you will be called upon to defend our world from the darkest of evils. The fate of the world may well rest in your hands."

And so begins the adventures of Gunter, the Barbarian Mage. What fate lies in store for this misunderstood barbarian?

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER BUILD AND EQUIPMENT

Gunter is untwinked except for the Trang Oul's set, so all items except for the Trang Oul's set are items that he found himself. He's level 76 now and is about to step into hell for the first time. He's going to follow the same rules as Grizabella:

1. He plays solo.
2. He plays in /players 1 mode.
3. He must get every waypoint and quest in game order.

He can skip or reroll monsters if he needs to, but he has to fulfill every quest. I'm going to play him as if he were a hardcore character and see how far he can go without dying.


CURRENT EQUIPMENT

Helm: Trang-Oul's Guise (Bone Visage)
Belt: Trang-Oul's Girth (Troll Belt)
Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws (Heavy Bracers)
Weapon: Bahamut's Yew Wand of Enlightenment (+106 mana, +29 energy)
Shield: Chromatic Tower Shield of Deflecting socketed with 2 perfect diamonds (69% block, +61% all resists)
Ring: Bahamut's Ring of Greed (+105 mana, +31% extra gold from monsters)
Ring: Great Wyrm's Ring of the Wraith (+82 mana, 4% mana leech)
Amulet: Cobalt Amulet of Luck (27% cold resist, 30% magic find)
Boots: Rare 20% lightning resist, 33% fire resist, +5 dex, +39% extra gold from monsters, +10% faster hit recovery)
Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi (+21% all resists, 11 mdr)

On weapon switch he has:

Heart Carver (for the occasional Find Item attempt)
'Ancients Pledge' Tower Shield

Charms: The charms are extremely underpowered. His inventory is almost completely full of them and combined they give:

+129 life
15 poison damage
9% lightning resist
4% poison resist
3% magic find
+3 mana
+5 dexterity
+1 Warcries (my favorite charm)

I would love to use more +mana charms, but the +3 mana charm is the only +mana charm I've found.

Gunter also found a Razorswitch in the nightmare Dark Woods. I just about fell out of my chair when I saw it drop. It was great through most of nightmare, but sadly by about halfway through nightmare Act V it became clear that Gunter needed to wear a shield. Too bad. I spent four hours shopping the hell Act I shop for a Jeweler's or Artisan's Tower Shield of Deflecting (3 socket, 69% block shield), but it never showed up. I had to settle for the Chromatic Tower Shield of Deflecting and socket it using the Larzuk quest reward. I hated having to use one of Gunter's socketing quest rewards that way, but a person has to make do with the hand he's been dealt.

I had planned to wear the Trang-Oul armor as well, but when the Skin of the Vipermagi dropped in the Throne of Destruction, I decided I could do without the armor. Wearing the armor would allow Gunter to cast Meteors, but I found that Firewall was more effective, and one only needs to wear three Trang-Oul items to cast Firewalls. Also, the +1 all skills on the Skin of the Vipermagi makes the Firewalls do 66 points more damage per second and really helps boost the effectiveness of all of Gunter's abilities.


MERCENARY EQUIPMENT

I feel pretty good about Gunter's equipment, but I've had terrible luck getting anything decent for his Might enchanted mercenary:

Rare Thresher: 23% ed (14-173 damage), +30% ias, socketed with a perfect emerald
Sigon's helm
Sigon's armor

His mercenary used a normal socketed lance -- socketed with a perfect skull and a perfect emerald -- up until Act V nightmare. In the Frigid Highlands of Act V, Gunter found the Sigon's armor which finally allowed the mercenary to have some life leech from his armor. That allowed me to try a couple of imbues and the best of the two was the pathetic 23% ed thresher you see above. At least it allowed me to socket it with a perfect emerald without using a quest reward. The poison damage is critical to stop the new extremely fast monster life regeneration.

Gunter's mercenary is clearly extremely underpowered and I plan to focus on getting him equipment in the early acts of hell. I've collected a lot of gems (yes, Gunter is allowed to mule), so I plan to try a lot of attempts at the 3 normal, 3 flawless, or 3 perfect gem horadric cube magic weapon recipes. In addition, Gunter has found all of the runes necessary to make an 'Honor' or 'Passion' weapon. He just needs to find a good weapon to put the runes into. Unfortunately, those runewords don't have poison or Prevent Monster Heal, so I'm really hoping a Wormskull or another helm or armor that adds poison damage drops. In addition, Gunter is only an 'Um' short of making 'Crescent Moon,' which would be my ultimate preference for a mercenary weapon. Unfortunately, it doesn't have Prevent Monster Heal or poison damage on it, either.

I chose to use a Might enchanted mercenary, because much of Gunter's power against single opponents comes from his mercenary. I'm hoping that Gunter's warcries will provide enough crowd control to make a Holy Freeze mercenary unnecessary.


SKILL ALLOCATION

My skill selection process was pretty clear:

WARCRIES

20 points Battle Orders
20 points War Cry
20 points Battle Cry
11 points Taunt
1 point Howl
1 point Shout
1 point Battle Command

COMBAT MASTERIES

1 point Increased Stamina
1 point Increased Speed
1 point Iron Skin
4 points Natural Resistance

COMBAT SKILLS

1 point Leap Attack
1 point Leap (prereq)

Leap Attack is used only for mobility -- not for attack. It's kind of a poor man's teleport. All further points will go into Taunt and, if Gunter gets that far, Howl.


STAT POINT ALLOCATION

Gunter's naked (no items) stat allocation looks like this:

Str: 106
Dex: 171
Vit: 183
Energy: 10

After equipping everything, his stats look like this:

Str: 106
Dex: 181
Vit: 183
Energy: 39

I chose not to put any points into Energy, because barbarians get 4 life points for every point put into Vitality and only 1 mana point for every point put into Energy. I'm counting on equipment to give Gunter the mana he needs.


RELEVANT STATISTICS

With this equipment and stat setup after Battle Command, Battle Orders, and Shout, Gunter gets:

511-540 War Cry physical damage
825-848 Firewall damage/second (for 3.6 seconds)
75%/75%/75%/50% resists
75% block
2374 Defense
2174 Life
1196 Mana
+3 Warcries
+2 All other skills


GAME PLAY WITH GUNTER

In theory, a fight against a typical monster pack works something like this:

1. Gunter runs up to the largest pack of monsters and casts War Cry to stun it.
2. He then Taunts the other monsters, particularly missile fire types, to draw them into the range of the stunning War Cry.
3. Once everyone is safely stunned, he then alternates between War Cry and Firewall to finish off the pack.

Of course, bosses and champions can't be stunned or taunted, so they're always an adventure to deal with. The only thing Gunter can do to them is cast Battle Cry (-47% damage) and try to find a way to take them on one at a time. Also, low power casting characters like Gunter are at a huge disadvantage compared to low power fighter types like Grizabella, because casters can't stop monster life regen by simply putting a poison charm in their inventories. Monster life regen rates are extremely high now, so it takes a lot of mana to kill things using War Cry and Firewall. Gunter is constantly going back to town to buy mana potions. I often let his mercenary take care of small groups of stunned monsters to conserve mana.


COMMENTS

1. Playing through nightmare convinces me that Taunt is one of the greatest skills around. Even the most cookie-cutter whirlwind barbarian should use it. I'll save the descriptions of what it does to different monsters for the adventure reports, but I already have a feeling that those reports are going to be "brought to you by the skill Taunt."



This is a screenshot of Gunter in a magic finding run after he had already completed nightmare and had donned the Trang-Oul set. He had killed Baal in a /players 8 game using only War Cry already. It took a long time.

[Occhidiangela]

1. Expanded discussion on Taunt

As I get in a little playing time with my Tourette's Barbarian, I am learning a few more detalis about Taunt. Anything you find to add to our discussion would be greatly appreciated for the "eventual" guide for that oddball build.

2. Have you considered making a Malice Rune word pike/lance/warpike? While the damage bonus is not fantastic, the advantages are:

Open Wounds
Prevent Monster Heal

You might want to consider that as a Merc Weapon while you shout away.

3. Do you allow yourself to whack at the monsters at all? If so, Battle Cry will at least drop their DR to modest levels and give you a shot at scoring hits. Daggers are Non Mastery weapons, and would suit your Sorceress/Magician theme. Since you put the Points into Dex, I expect you could get decent To Hit unless you lucked out and could make a Venom rune Word Kris or something like that. :) Not sure if that fits your theme.

4. I'd be curious to see whether or not "Amp Damage" will boost your damage out put from WarCry. It is Physical Damage, not magical last I heard, and if your merc has an item that "casts Amp Damage" you might speed up your kill rate considerably.

5. A malice kris (IIRC, they can have three sockets) might do you good if you are allowing yourself to slip in the blade now and again. Make sure you have +5 regen or better equipped if you use it, though, or you will never stop drinking red pots.

6. I have found that even one point in Find Potions, with a few War Cry adders, puts massive drinking assets at my beck at call.

7. Love Your Show. :D

[MongoJerry]

As I get in a little playing time with my Tourette's Barbarian, I am learning a few more detalis about Taunt. Anything you find to add to our discussion would be greatly appreciated for the "eventual" guide for that oddball build.

Yeah, I've already participated in that discussion a little. You and Zath confirmed a lot of things I saw in nightmare and that discussion was very helpful. I'll definitely report anything new I find.

Have you considered making a Malice Rune word pike/lance/warpike?

Hmmm... That's an interesting idea. Sadly, it has better enhanced damage than the Thresher I'm using now, although it doesn't have any ias. I'd much rather have a higher damage weapon, though, so if I can get some poison damage added through my helm or armor, I'm going to try to make an 'Honor' weapon for the damage and life leech. I'm going to start gambling on circlets as another way to try to get poison damage on a helm.

Do you allow yourself to whack at the monsters at all? If so, Battle Cry will at least drop their DR to modest levels and give you a shot at scoring hits. Daggers are Non Mastery weapons, and would suit your Sorceress/Magician theme. Since you put the Points into Dex, I expect you could get decent To Hit unless you lucked out and could make a Venom rune Word Kris or something like that.  Not sure if that fits your theme.

That's fine as long as I don't study the combat skills or masteries. In fact, that's the reason I have a poison damage charm in my inventory. Before my merc was able to deliver poison damage himself, I'd sometimes take a wack at a monster using my wand or staff just to stop monster regeneration for six seconds.

I'm a Mal short of making 'Venom', but if I did find a Mal, I'd probably use it to socket a good magic or rare polearm or spear for my merc. By the way, do you know how long Prevent Monster Heal lasts? Is it permanent, so that all you'd have to do is whack something once and switch out?

I'd be curious to see whether or not "Amp Damage" will boost your damage out put from WarCry. It is Physical Damage, not magical last I heard, and if your merc has an item that "casts Amp Damage" you might speed up your kill rate considerably.

That would be interesting to find out. The damage is definitely physical damage, since physical immunes don't get damaged at all by War Cry.

I have found that even one point in Find Potions, with a few War Cry adders, puts massive drinking assets at my beck at call.

I'm saving on skill points by using the Heart Carver on weapon switch which gives +4 Find Potion, +4 Find Item, and +4 Grim Ward. I've just started running Find Item on dead monster piles to look for items for my merc. Luckily, potions turn up a lot, too, so so far that's been enough. Once I get equipment for my merc, though, I think I'll take your suggestion and use Find Potions exclusively. That should save a lot of cash and running back to town to buy potions.

Love Your Show.

Thanks! :D

[Occhidiangela]

I think it must be on a timer. Two nights ago, I let my merc die as I fought a Hell Physical Immune LEB BOSS Strangler on the River of flame. I used Battle Cry to lower his DR, and I used my two handed weapon, an upgraded to exceptional BoneSnap and Berserk. I initially used Frenzy since I have a PMH Naga in one hand. After stoppin his regen, I went to work with Berserk. I got his life bar down to about 2/3 life remaining before I had to head back to town for Pots. :P I came back and his life was full again.

Prevent Monster Heal is either reset if you TP to town, or it is on a timer. I'd guess it, like Open Wounds, is on a timer, I'd guess forty seconds.

Won't have time to test until this weekend.

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT I

On his journey to the Rogue Monastery, Gunter met hundreds of refugees streaming out of the lands near Tristram. He heard horrifying stories of the dead rising from the grave and cruel demons ravaging the countryside. Worst of all, he heard that many members of the once proud Rogue Sisterhood had turned to evil and were participating in the slaughter of the innocent. Gunter realized that Esmerelda was right. These were dark times indeed.

But Gunter also heard some heartening news. Some rogues still remained true to the Light and were making a brave stand against the murderous onslaught. Gunter had visions of a mighty stone citadel standing against the dark tide like his home city of Harrogoth. He planned to join the mighty Rogue army and help them sweep their monstrous foes from the land.

But when he stepped into Rogue Camp, he found something quite different. The citadel turned out to be nothing but a spartan dusty camp surrounded by a hastily erected wooden barricade guarded by a handful of archers. Instead of a mighty army, he found a demoralized ragtag band of refugees huddling behind the wooden walls and waiting for the attack that would surely come. This group needed a hero to arrive soon or all hope would be lost. Gunter shuddered. Did he have what it took to be a hero?

Inside the camp, Gunter was greeted warmly by Warriv, a caravan leader. His caravan had taken refuge inside the Rogue Camp when he learned that the eastern pass had been overrun by monsters. He told Gunter that rumors were circulating that Diablo himself roamed the countryside, but Gunter cast that idea aside as idle speculation. Gunter also met Charsi, the camp blacksmith who seemed a bit more forward than the barbarian women Gunter was used to, and Gheed, an arms dealer of questionable reputation.

Gunter offered his services to Kashya who seemed to be the military leader of the camp, but she spurned his offer. Many powerful adventurers had apparently passed through the camp and had made grand promises only to get themselves killed by the monster hordes. Kashya could not see how a barbarian mage ("Who has ever heard of such a thing?") could possibly help the rogues when so many more powerful adventurers had failed to do so. However, Akara, the Rogue spiritual leader, gave Gunter a warmer reception. While she too was skeptical of the idea of a barbarian mage, Gunter's tales of his past adventures seemed to impress her. When she learned that Esmerelda herself had sent Gunter to help the Rogues, she felt that she had no choice but to give this stranger an opportunity to prove himself. She sent him on a mission to clear out a cave just outside of camp where monsters were massing for an attack. If he was successful, he would then be sent on bigger and more dangerous missions.

Gunter readily accepted the assignment. Was he prepared for the challenges ahead? And could Gunter be the hero the rogues needed to reclaim their monastery and bring peace to the surrounding land?



Until I played Gunter, I had never seen the Taunt skill used before. I had never used it before and had never seen any barbarian partymates use it. I'll be honest with you and state right here that through a combined 18 months of intense Diablo 2 play (broken up by an 18 month hiatus), I have only sparingly played barbarians. I mostly play sorceresses and a little bit of amazons and necromancers (I was #13 on the USWest hardcore sorceress ladder right before LoD came out). The highest level barbarian I've ever played was a level 57 cookie cutter whirlwinder who I stopped playing, because well let's just say he didn't fit my playing style. Most of the barbarians I came across were also typical cookie cutter whirlwinders with the occasional berserker or throwing barb thrown into the mix. Needless to say, I haven't seen the skills on the left side of the War Cry skill tree used much in actual combat.

But after seeing Taunt in action, I can't believe that I haven't seen it used before. A simple one point investment in this skill can allow a barbarian to shut down packs of missile fire monsters and monsters that raise other monsters from the dead. I have two theories as to why Taunt has not been used very much until now:

1. In earlier versions of D2, missile fire monsters weren't nearly as scary as they are in 1.10.

2. The Arreat Summit description of Taunt gives short shrift to what the skill actually does. It says that Taunt causes a monster to go into a "blind rage" and "is useful against Monsters that run away from you." I can imagine that a lot of people would ask "Why would I want monsters to come attack me?" and "Who cares if they run away? I can just chase them down."

I think more people would use Taunt if it were given a label that really described what it does: A Skill That Causes a Monster to Stop What It's Doing and Come Get It's Butt Kicked. That may be a little long for a skill name, but it would accurately describe what it does.

What makes Taunt so great? Consider the simple Carver camp in the screenshot above. I'm sure you all have dealt with this camp hundreds of times. There are always a ton of carvers around and 5-6 shamans who raise every carver you kill. The typical strategy is to kill the shamans first, but that usually means running into the middle of the camp where you can get swarmed. And it also means running all around the area hunting down and killing all of the shamans before you can deal with the main carver pack. By running around and meleeing the shamans, you end up waking up all kinds of other nasty monster packs that you have to deal with at the same time that you are killing all of the carvers. Plus, anytime any monster dies, all the carvers scatter and it's a pain hunting down and destroying them.

But now what happens if you have Taunt? Now, you can meet the carvers head on as they come. In Gunter's case, he can stun the carvers with War Cry and keep them from running away. If a shaman starts raising carvers, a barbarian can cast Taunt on the shamans. A Taunted shaman shuts down, stops raising carvers, and slowly makes its way toward the barbarian, thinking it can take on the barbarian with his tiny knife. Once all of the shamans are Taunted, the carvers can be killed and they will stay dead. When the shamans finally get to the barbarian, they can be dispatched quickly (or in Gunter's case, stunned quickly). If there's an off screen shaman that you missed who is raising carvers, that's no problem. Just move a little bit in his direction until he's on screen, cast Taunt on him, and go back to the pack. Unlike the typical strategy, you don't have to actually run over to him and wake up any extra monsters. In fact, you often don't need him to actually be on the screen. You can just Taunt the edge of the screen and off screen shamans and any carver minions will often come strolling toward you. Carvers who run away can also be taunted back to the pack for a quick stun or kill.

Taunt also works well for archer and quill rat packs. If you're being bombarded by arrows while you're dealing with a pack of melee monsters, you can Taunt the archers. They will stop firing and slowly come toward you and join the pack of monsters you are whittling down with your Whirlwind or other attack skill. It also stops monsters from using many of their special attack skills like charge. Taunt is a fantastic skill and I highly recommend a 1-point investment even if you're not playing a barbarian mage.

There are a couple of caveats to this. If you back away from a monster after it closes to melee range, it will go back to its regular AI and use its special attacks. Taunt is a permanent condition, so a monster that is taunted can't be taunted again (unless one takes a waypoint to another Act and comes back which seems to erase the previous Taunt). Also, if a monster's path finding routine can't find a way to get to you, the monster will go back to using its special attacks. For example, I cast Taunt on the shaman in the burning house in the Cold Plains. He stopped raising carvers for a moment and came to the edge of the house. He stopped there and then went back to raising carvers. Also, in nightmare Act V, I Taunted skeleton archers in the Bloody Foothills. At first, they'd stop firing, but if their path finding routines couldn't find an easy way to get to me, they'd start firing again. So when you're Taunting a monster, it's good to position yourself so that there aren't any large barriers between you and the monster.



Here's another screenshot of Taunt in action. While Gunter was dealing with a couple of rogue archers, a couple of skeleton archers were pelting him with arrows. So, he taunted them. They stopped shooting and slowly made their way to the stairs where they got promptly stunned along with the rogue archers and the misshapen coming up from the left. Incidentally, if you're being pelted by lightning balls from misshapen, you can taunt the misshapen and they'll stop shooting at you and instead try to come melee you.



Enough on Taunt for now. How well did Gunter handle Act I? Pretty darned well. Most monsters fell pretty much according to plan. I can already tell that champion packs are going to be Gunter's bane, however. Boss packs aren't too bad, because the minions can be stunned. But dealing with four champions who can't be stunned all at the same time can be troublesome.

Blood Raven was a pain, because she moves so much and so fast now. She wouldn't sit still for the Firewall and when she moved, she'd quickly get out of range of War Cry. The merc usually got distracted by the zombies and since Gunter doesn't have teleport, Gunter couldn't easily direct the merc to attack Blood Raven. This is definitely a huge disadvantage compared to Grizabella. Gunter had to make do with doing whatever damage he could deliver during the times Blood Raven stood still. I'm thinking of shopping for a staff with teleport charges on it for use in special situations.

War Cry is pure physical damage, so right now the only thing Gunter has that can damage physical immunes, like Griswold pictured above, is his Firewall and the occasional Fireball. If possible, I would like to get some elemental damage on Gunter's merc. My ultimate preference for a weapon would be 'Crescent Moon', but Gunter is still an Um short of making it. The good news, however, is that even though War Cry does not damage physical immune monsters, it can still stun them as long as they are not bosses or champions.

I did have some success in getting some decent equipment for Gunter's merc. Griswold dropped a Vampire Gaze which I immediately gave Gunter's merc. In addition, I gambled on circlets for a while and got a Circlet of Venom. I'd hate to replace a Vampire Gaze with a simple Circlet of Venom, but it does give Gunter the option of using a good runeword weapon like 'Honor' and still be able to stop monster life regeneration (if the monster is not poison immune) if the opportunity presents itself. For now, the merc is still wearing the Vampire Gaze and I'll continue to gamble on circlets in the hope of getting a good rare with poison damage on it.

In addition, Gunter found a rare 170% enhanced damage partizan (91 to 202 damage) with +102% damage to demons and (here's the kicker) 7 poison damage over 3 seconds. That's a huge improvement over the 32% enhanced damage thresher he was using before. In addition, Gunter used the new gem recipes to try to roll a good weapon. He found a socketed hyperion spear and used the 3 normal gem recipe to make it into a magical socketed hyperion spear. When it turned out to be junk, he then rerolled the magical properties several times using the 3 flawless gem recipe. So far, nothing extraordinarily good has shown up, but he'll keep trying. Obviously, the best mod would be a cruel hyperion spear, but I'd settle for something in the +100% enhanced damage or better range. The nice thing about this recipe is that the weapon comes out automatically with sockets, so one doesn't have to spend a socketing quest reward to socket it with a perfect emerald, Amn, or Shael. I'm trying this recipe on a hyperion spear, because it's a fast weapon and all of the elite polearms and spears deal approximately the same amount of average damage per time (fast weapons have less base damage and slow weapons do more base damage which evens things out). A hyperion spear is as good as anything else to try the recipe on. Eventually, I'd like to make a good runeword weapon or find a good rare or unique weapon for Gunter's merc. I'll also probably spend my last imbue trying to make a weapon for him the next chance I get.

Using the Heart Carver I have on weapon switch which gives +4 to Find Item and Find Potion, I've been running Find Item on all the monsters I kill. It's been a fantastic tool that has helped me get lots of extra cash, items to sell at the shop, gems, the socketed hyperion spear on which I'm using the gem recipes, potions, and even a pair of Laying of Hands gloves (why couldn't a pair have dropped for Grizabella?). The extra potions have been a godsend and have helped prevent the need to go back to town as much as I did in nightmare. Once my mercenary's equipment is more settled, I'll start running Find Potion on bodies, hopefully making it so that Gunter can spam his spells all he wants and not have to go back to town at all. It'll be kind of like how a hammerdin uses his redemption aura. A barbarian mage/singer should definitely spend a point or two in Find Potion if he's not lucky enough to find a Heart Carver of his own.

The Countess gave Gunter a Nef and an Eld. Grrr...



But the good news is that Gunter defeated Andariel and successfully completed all of Act I. Andariel dropped a rare amulet that gives +1 to sorceress skills. Unfortunately, it does not boost the Firewall damage given by the Trang-Oul's set. Too bad.


So Gunter defeated the evil queen Andariel and earned the respect of the Rogues. Even Kashya, who had greeted Gunter so coldly, had to admit her astonishment at Gunter's success where so many more powerful adventurers had failed before. At last it was time to say farewell to the Rogue sisters and journey to new destinations for there was no longer any doubt that Diablo, the Lord of Terror, had indeed arisen anew. Gunter said farewell to the beautiful and talented blacksmith Charsi. Perhaps, he thought, he might one day return to these fair lands.

And so Gunter set off with Warriv and the wise Cain, the last of the ancient Horadrim order, to the great desert city of Lut Gholein. No doubt Gunter would have to prove himself yet again to a new set of people. But would Gunter have what it takes to meet the challenges that lay ahead?

[MongoJerry]

There has been some disagreement on diabloii.net regarding the new 3-normal and 3-flawless weapon cube recipes and how they work and I'm hoping that someone here can straighten things out. What's the best damage modifier that is possible to get using these recipes? Can one reroll weapons to get a cruel? Or are the possible magic modifiers capped at some specific level? I'd like to keep rerolling Gunter's hyperion spear to get a socketed cruel or at least get something with a good damage modifier on it. I want to know if I'm wasting my time.

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT II

When Gunter and Cain arrived in Lut Gholein, they found the typically bustling port-city strangely subdued. However, the sight of Warriv's caravan, the first caravan to cross the Western Pass in many months, created some mild excitement for the residents and the caravan was met at the city gates by Jehryn, the Lord of Lut Gholein. While he graciously welcomed the caravan to his fair city and was heartened by the news of the opening of the mountain pass, he was also distracted by the problems plaguing Lut Gholein. A Dark Wanderer had passed through the city not long before and had asked the townsfolk many questions the about the location of the tomb of Tal Rasha, the Keeper of Baal. Soon after he had left Lut Gholein, the dead began rising from their graves and horrifying creatures began lurking in the desert surrounding the city.

Cain told Jehryn of Gunter's heroic deeds and how it was he alone who was responsible for opening the Western Pass. Jehryn seemed impressed and said that any help Gunter could give to Lut Gholein would be greatly appreciated. However, he seemed distracted and at last broke off the conversation by saying that he had some urgent business to attend to. It was clear that Jehryn hadn't told Cain and Gunter all that he knew.

Indeed, as they wandered around town, Cain and Gunter saw another strange sight. The town seemed to be guarded by a band of mercenaries. The townsfolk said that all of the town guards had been sent into the palace. There were mysterious events going on in this city. Would Gunter be able to solve the mysteries and defeat the evil plaguing Lut Gholein?





The monsters in the sewers leading down to Radament fell according to plan. The burning dead archers could be Taunted into coming into the range of War Cry where they could be stunned and killed. Sometimes packs of archers would shoot at me from off screen, but that wasn't a problem. I just taunted the edge of the screen and made the archers come to me.

When I got to Radament, I was presented with a problem. Every time a skeleton gets killed, Radament promptly raises it from the dead and you can't stop Radament from doing that with Taunt. Radament needed to be killed first. Unfortunately, just as with Grizabella, Gunter's mercenary does far more damage against single opponents than Gunter does (Gunter's War Cry does more damage against groups of monsters because of its area of effect). But Gunter doesn't have the benefit of Teleport, so how can Gunter get his mercenary past all of the skeletons and get him to attack Radament?

I used the "poor man's Teleport." I drew the skeleton pack to me and used War Cry to stun them. Then, I Leap Attacked past the pack to Radament, started up a tp, went to town, and came back -- which brought the mercenary with me. The theory was that the mercenary would focus on Radament while my War Cry kept the minions stunned and at bay.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. Radament likes to move around when he's being meleed and whenever he moved, the mercenary would turn and start attacking the stunned skeleton mob. I tried the "poor man's Teleport" trick two more times, but the plan just wouldn't work. So I switched tactics.

I weapon switched to the Heart Carver and spammed War Cry and Find Item. Every time a skeleton died, the Find Item would get cast before Radament got a chance to raise the skeleton. Monsters that have had Find Item or Find Potion run on them can't be raised back from the dead, so the skeleton remained dead. Once all of the skeletons were safely and permanently killed, then Gunter and his merc could focus exclusively on attacking Radament as the screenshot above shows. He fell in short order.



Have I mentioned before how much like I like Taunt? This screenshot shows a typical battle I had in the dungeon areas. While I was stunning and dealing with a pack of skeletons and bats, a boss pack of spear cats started chucking spears at us. I Taunted the minions who promptly stopped throwing spears and politely walked forward to get stunned and killed. An off screen Hollow One started raising skeletons, so I Taunted the edge of the screen and the Hollow One stopped raising skeletons and a few seconds later came walking slowly on screen toward me. The pack was killed routinely. One can't stop the boss spear cat from throwing spears, but hey, that's what 75% block is for. Once the pack is killed, the boss can be dispatched quickly.

Leapers were interesting to deal with. When you War Cry a leaper, it knocks them back out of the range of War Cry -- even if they're already stunned. So to kill them, you either have to knock them back against a wall or do what I did against the non-fire immune versions -- stun them with War Cry and cast Firewall on them. While they're stunned, they won't move out of the Firewall and they don't have a lot of hit points, so they get cooked pretty fast.



The Maggot Lair went fairly smoothly. The biggest irritants were Itchies which are immune to physical. They die pretty quickly to Firewall, but it's a pain in those cramped corridors to aim the Firewall correctly and wait for all of the itchies to get properly cooked one at a time. The main chamber had wall to wall maggots, so it was a slow grind to make progress in the room. But the War Cry took out the baby maggots well while the mamas got slowly cooked by the Firewall. It wasn't long before Gunter had the Staff of Kings in his hand.



The Viper Temple was easier than the Maggot Lair. The vipers aren't immune to fire or physical attacks and can be stunned easily. In the main chamber, it was easy to make my way around the room. I'd Taunt the Guardians (Hollow One types) to keep them from raising the skeletons and use War Cry to stun the vipers that came out. Also, Taunted vipers won't use their charge attacks, so coaxing groups of off screen vipers out with Taunt is very effective. Dealing with Fangskin was easy. With all of his minions stunned, there was very little Fangskin could do to us.

[MongoJerry]

The Arcane Sanctuary was grueling. The Ghosts are immune to physical attacks and the hell clans are immune to fire. The toughest part was dealing with the Ghosts, because when they'd attack me or my mercenary from the side while we were on a narrow bridge, I couldn't start up a Firewall underneath them. When that happened, I'd coax the ghosts back to an area with a larger shelf where I could cast Firewall on them. Progress was slow, and it didn't help that I was unlucky and found the Summoner in the very last direction I looked.

In the Sanctuary, I found a Rising Sun amulet which gives +2 to fire skills and absorbs 60 fire damage (based on character level). This put me in an interesting conundrum. The Rising Sun amulet increases Gunter's Firewall damage by 150 points/second and the fire absorb is sure nice. But, if I wasn't wearing the 30% magic find amulet, maybe I wouldn't have found the Rising Sun amulet in the first place. I decided to keep wearing the magic find amulet for now and save the Rising Sun amulet for special occasions -- especially for use against end of act bosses where magic find doesn't matter. I may break it out in Act V if Gunter gets there to protect him against the Imps.

When I found the Summoner, I leap attacked onto his platform and spammed War Cry. The Summoner fell quickly. He can dish out the damage, but he can't take it. Also, the spammed War Cry held the hell clan minions at bay while I focused on the Summoner.

In the Canyon of the Magi, I found a damaged hyperion spear. I figured, "What the heck? Might as well spend my last imbue." When I did, my jaw dropped. +193% enhanced damage, +167 to attack rating, 3-8 cold damage, 4% life leech. That's better enhanced damage than 'Honor' and is in the upper range of what 'Passion' can give. I'm going to spend my second socket quest on it and socket it with a perfect emerald. That way, my mercenary can keep wearing the Vampire Gaze. If I end up wanting to socket it with something else later (e.g. a Mal rune), I have a Hel rune that I can use to remove the emerald. Now I just need a decent set of armor for my merc. I think for now, I'm just going to find a decent 3-socket armor and socket it with an Ort, Ral, and Thul to max out the mercenary's lightning, fire, and cold resistances until I find something better. I also have two +20 enhanced damage jewels that I'd like to find a way to use.



Gunter took a page out of Grizabella's playbook when fighting Duriel. He walked into Duriel's chamber, leap attacked past Duriel to keep Duriel from charging him, cast Battle Cry to decrease Duriel's damage by 47%, stayed right next to Duriel to keep from getting charged, and spammed his attacks. He had to go back to town once to refresh healing and mana potions, but otherwise, Duriel fell with no difficulties. He dropped a pair of Aldur's Advance battle boots (40% faster r/w, +50 life, +46% fire resist, and 10% damage taken goes to mana). I was quite happy about that and quickly switched my boots out. (I had found a lightning resist charm earlier, so my lightning resistance remains maxed even without the rare boots I was using before).


And so Gunter managed to free the fair city of Lut Gholein from the evil forces that had surrounded it. But the news was not all fair. Diablo had managed to free his brother Baal, the Lord of Destruction, from his imprisonment inside the mage Tal Rasha. Cain told Gunter that their next destination should be Kurast where rumors had reported that the city was under siege. Jehryn thanked Gunter for his services and asked the sea captain Meshif to take Gunter and Cain to Kurast. What would Gunter find there?

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT III

When Gunter and Cain arrived in Kurast, they could not believe their eyes. The city lay in ruin and the neighboring jungle had reclaimed much of the land once occupied by the great city. Gunter and Cain were greeted by Hratli, a shopkeeper sorcerer skilled in metalwork. He told them that Kurast's corruption was due to the handiwork of Mephisto, Diablo's brother. Only the city's dock remained free of evil and corruption due to a temporary protective ward. Cain told Gunter that he must go into the jungle to see if the evil power corrupting Kurast could be destroyed and to find Diablo and Baal, if possible.

Hratli chuckled. He did not see how a barbarian mage could help the people of Kurast. Many powerful adventurers had gone into the jungle only to not return or worse return tortured and mad. Indeed, a palpable sense of lonely senility seemed to have descended on most of the residents of the Kurast Docks. Only Asheara, the leader of the Iron Wolves, a fierce mercenary band of mages who continued the losing fight against the dark evil, seemed to maintain a sense of determined sanity.

This was going to be a tough journey. How could a simple barbarian mage free Kurast from an evil that had corrupted so many before him?




The start of Act III was, in a word, easy. It seemed easier than Act II in fact. I think the new more powerful weapon I imbued at the end of Act II for my mercenary made a huge difference. Also, there aren't many powerful missile fire monsters in the jungle areas of Act III, so it's easy to quickly gather and stun most monster packs. Incidentally, I finally got the definitive answer on the whole 3-normal and 3-flawless cube recipes from a reliable source. Adeyke over at the Lurker Lounge explained all of the game mathematics of it. The recipes set the ilvl of an item to 30, but the qlvl of an item doesn't change. The bottom line is that it is possible to roll a cruel weapon using these recipes, but the qlvl of the weapon must be at least 75. For an act II merc, that means you have to try the recipe on a cryptic axe, great polearm, giant thresher, war pike or ghost spear. Other polearms and spears will never come up with the cruel prefix using the 3-normal or 3-flawless gem recipes. I've started rolling a ghost spear for Gunter. The best he's gotten so far is a Master's Ghost Spear of the Locust (149% enhanced damage, 7% life leech). That would be the weapon Gunter's mercenary would be using if Gunter hadn't gotten that good imbue on the hyperion spear. I'm going to keep rolling the ghost spear every chance I get to see if I can make a socketed cruel.

Anyway, the spider cavern was easy, since all of the spiders rushed to Gunter for the easy stun. Sszark was immune to fire and physical attacks again, though, so Gunter took another page out of Grizabella's play book. While Sszark was busy attacking Gunter's mercenary, Gunter leap attacked past him, hit the chest, got the eye, and tp'd to town.



But how did Gunter do against the endless hordes of screaming flayers? Silly question. He was awesome, of course! Think of a 1.09 tweaker Nova sorceress in the flayer jungle if the flayers weren't lightning immune and the Nova was able to stun for five seconds. That's what Gunter was like. He rolled over the Flayer jungle. All of the knife flayers would run up and get stunned by the War Cry. Flayers don't have many hit points, so they died in 3-4 War Cry's. If you Taunt the flayer shamans, they won't raise flayers anymore and if you Taunt the blowdart flayers, they'll come in the range of War Cry and get stunned along with the melee flayers. It was so easy that after I made my way through the jungle and found the Lower Kurast waypoint, I restarted the game, set the game on /players 8 and did the flayer jungle again to see what it was like. The monster life regeneration increases along with the increase in monster hit points, so it took a lot of War Cry casts and a lot of mana potions to kill a pack of 8-player flayers. But when a given battle was over, Gunter would have 20-odd bodies on which to cast Find Potion and he could restock for the next battle. The leveling speed was pretty good for an 81st level character. I'd definitely recommend the Flayer Jungle to all singing barbs as a place in which to level up and perhaps do some item finding.

Also in the Flayer Jungle, I got the first unique that I was certain came from using Find Item -- a Butcher's Pupil. It's not a very useful item, but it's nice to know that Find Item can give you a unique once in a while. I may have found other uniques using Find Item before (I've definitely found rares using Find Item), but this is the first time I was sure it came from Find Item.

I also found a Spellsteel which would be a very useful item, because it has charges of Teleport on it... if only it weren't ethereal. I tried recharging the Spellsteel using the Ort cube recipe, but it didn't work. I still need to shop for a staff with Teleport charges on it.



After making my way through the jungle and getting the gidbinn (and the usual junk ring), eye, and brain, it was time for the Ruined Temple, formerly known as the "Death Trap." In the description of Grizabella's adventures in Act III, I described what a surprisingly easy fight Grizabella had in this place that in earlier versions of Diablo II was always the cause of angst and frequently death for hardcore characters. I speculated that either 'Delirium' did a real number on the monsters or Blizzard had nerfed the Ruined Temple.

After dealing with the Ruined Temple using Gunter, I'm definitely leaning toward the second explanation. Gunter walked into the Ruined Temple and got the map, formerly known as the "Death Map," which has the main chamber right in front of the entrance stairs and two small rooms on either side of the stairs (see the adventures of Grizabella for a full explanation of the "Death Map" and "Safe Map"). Like Grizabella, Gunter did not get swarmed immediately. Hmmmm... I went to the small room on the left and didn't see any monsters. I went to the small room on the right and there met a boss pack of Wailing Beasts. So at least there was a boss pack other than Battlemaid Sarina's pack this time. Gunter stunned the minions with War Cry and the pack was dispatched efficiently. As I walked further into the small room to open chests, my mercenary wandered and got too close to the entrance to the main chamber and triggered Sarina's pack. The pack quickly rushed into the room... and got stunned... and died quickly. The only things left in the Ruined Temple were about six normal spiders in the main chamber. I'm used to seeing like 20 Flesh Hunters and lots of Wailing Beasts, spiders, and vampires to go with them -- Not to mention at least two random boss packs in addition to Sarina's pack. But you can count in the picture above most of the Flesh Hunters that were in the Ruined Temple. Seven, perhaps? The Ruined Temple has definitely been nerfed. Incidentally, I tried the Ruined Temple in 8-player mode to see if it would spawn with more monsters. It spawned with a champion vampire pack instead of the Wailing Beast boss pack, but otherwise, it was the same as the 1-player version.

After the Ruined Temple, it was time to take on the Kurast sewers. It was again useful to Taunt the Horadrim Ancients (Hollow One types) to stop them from raising skeletons. I met many groups of undead stygian dolls but their explosions did minimal damage to me even when I intentionally killed three of them simultaneously after letting them close to melee range. I don't have enough experience with melee characters in previous versions of D2 to know if the stygian dolls have been nerfed or if maybe people who play melee characters are just whiners (just kidding, guys!). Admittedly, I'm playing in 1-player mode, so perhaps the doll explosions would be more dangerous in an 8-player game, but since Grizabella didn't have any problems even when she killed a boss doll, I suspect that the doll explosions have been nerfed. I had to explore most of the sewers to find the entrance to level 2, but the going was relatively quick and after not a long amount of time, I had the heart placed safely in my stash. Then it was off to Tranvincal.

[MongoJerry]

As I explained in the story of Grizabella's adventures, it's a good idea for underpowered characters to do a full clear of Travincal before taking on the high council. One especially wants to kill all of the Heirophants in the area, because you don't want to wail on a council member for several minutes only to have him be healed by a Heirophant.

I've always despised Heirophants. They're collectively my nemesis. They cast spells on you from a distance, heal their minions, and teleport away when you try to kill them. How dare they! I mean, it's OK when *I* do that with my sorceress, but it's not fair when they do that.

But in Gunter's case, the Heirophants were pieces of cake. Gee, guess what skill I used on them. When you Taunt a Heirophant, they stop teleporting, casting Blizzards, and healing monsters. They do seem to continue to use their lightning attack, but that's a lot better than their other attacks. Plus, if they can find a path to you, they'll walk right into the range of War Cry where they can be stunned. I've never had such an easy time clearing Travincal with a variant character. Incidentally, Heirophant boss packs have also been nerfed. In previous versions of D2, a Heirophant boss would appear with five Heirophant minions and the pack would be monstrously difficult to kill, because the pack members would keep healing each other. But now, a Heirophant boss pack consists of a Heirophant boss with Zealot minions and is much easier to kill. Similarly, Oblivion Mage boss packs consist of an Oblivion Mage boss and Doom Knight minions. Also, Carver Shaman boss packs consist of a shaman boss and Carver minions. These changes definitely make all of these packs easier to kill (which is kind of a shame in my humble opinion).



After clearing Travincal, it was time to start luring out the council members -- preferably one at a time. I taunted the entrance to the temple to try to get some of the minion council members to come out and it worked. There's been some speculation on the Lurker Lounge that Taunt would stop a council member from casting hydra or heal. That seemed to fit with what I saw. It seemed like the only attack the normal minions used was their normal melee attack (and maybe the lightning one?). Then, I drew out the boss council members one at a time and killed each one a safe distance away from the temple.

I was particularly interested to see how Gunter would do against Ismail Vilehand. Other than the Cow King, Vilehand was the monster that took the longest for Grizabella to kill -- 25 minutes of uninterrupted attacks. Gunter does basically the same damage as Grizabella does against single opponents (obviously, Gunter's much better against groups). Well, perhaps he deals 50% more damage, but he uses the same attack forms -- physical and fire. I wondered if Gunter would have the same difficulty dealing with Vilehand that Grizabella had.

He didn't. Vilehand fell in roughly 20 seconds. This adds to the mystery. Perhaps there was a bug of some kind in 1.10 that got fixed in 1.10s. Or perhaps it has something to do with fire enchantment, because both Vilehand and the Cow King were fire enchanted for Grizabella and both seemed to take much longer to kill than one would expect. Vilehand wasn't fire enchanted this time (he was fire immune, but not fire enchanted), so maybe that's the difference. Also, Vilehand and the Cow King both had that weird bug for Grizabella in that they died well before the hit point bar would seem to indicate that they should have died (e.g. Vilehand died with 20% of his life left when Grizabella killed him). I don't know.

All of the boss council members died relatively painlessly -- each taking one mana potion run to town to kill. Inside the Durance, the monsters also fell pretty easily. There were Stygian Dolls, Cadavers, and Blunderbores which means from Gunter's point of view that there were no missile fire monsters and therefore no dangerous monsters. I killed a champion doll pack here and again took very little damage from the doll explosions.

There was a small group of normal blood lords in the entranceway in the Durance Level 3 who were easily stunned and dispatched. I then taunted Bremm Sparkfist's pack into the entranceway. It took several trips to town to refresh mana potions and my mercenary died once (a conviction, lightning enchanted Bremm Sparkfist is nasty), but ultimately the pack fell. In the main chamber, there was a pack of boss blood lords. The minions were taunted and taken care of quickly and then the boss was dispatched.



I tried a new strategy for me with Mephisto. I bought a wand of Life Tap from Ormus. Life Tap works on Mephisto and Diablo even though normal leech doesn't. I figured that it would help keep my mercenary alive and save on potions. I also wanted to experiment to see if the idea would work for future fights. I cast Life Tap on Mephisto and then Battle Cry. Hmmmm... The Battle Cry animation seemed to override the Life Tap animation. I cast Life Tap again and then Battle Cry. The same thing happened. I wasn't sure if the Battle Cry actually overrode the Life Tap or if it was just an animation problem, but just in case, I cast another Life Tap and left it at that. It definitely saved on healing potions. I only had to go back to town once. I stayed right next to Mephisto to keep him from using his blue ball and charged bolt attacks. He fell quickly.

Afterward, I tested the Life Tap and Battle Cry combination with Grizabella. Sure enough, Battle Cry overrides Life Tap, so the game seems to treat Battle Cry as a curse. That's too bad. I was hoping to use the Life Tap/Battle Cry combination with the Ancients if Gunter makes it that far.

Incidentally, I did one magic find run on Mephisto after that and got a second Vampire Gaze out of it. Magic finding on Mephisto is definitely not dead.


So Gunter freed Kurast from the evil corruption of Mephisto. Gunter's accomplishments, including a victory against one of the three Prime Evils, brought astonishment and wonder to the eyes of the few remaining residents of Kurast. There was no longer any doubt in their minds that this strange barbarian mage had special gifts of courage and determination that far outstripped the power of his spells. The mercenary leader Asheara made Gunter an honorary member of the Iron Wolves.

But Gunter's work was not over for Cain told Gunter that in order to save the world, Gunter must go into the very heart of hell itself and battle Diablo in his own realm. Gunter shuddered. How could any mortal man battle the demon hordes of hell and live to tell the tale?

[Kensan]

I would say you just got fortunate rolls on the Ruined Temple. My run through there also had your "deathtrap" layout. And meeting me right at the bottom of the stairs were two packs: Wailing Beast boss pack and regular spiders. My pally didn't have much trouble due to smite/conversion, and I suspect you would not have had any difficulty due to warcry. But other characters besides a mindblast assn or shocking bear might not be so fortunate in that situation. On top of that, both small side rooms had something in them, but only one had a boss. Neither of them were activated when I came down the stairs. I had to actually go down the hallways to meet them since they were busy guarding the empty chests. :lol:

Just don't want people to get the idea that doing the Hell Tome quest is now a piece of cake, especially for HC chars.

And Sarina in my game actually had quite a few vampire lords to accompany her, but I only triggered two of them at first since I didn't walk that far into the main chamber. Since I converted about 6 flesh hunters, I really didn't have much trouble with this fight. The remaining vampires were just taken out one at a time and were standing in the corners so I could hug the walls and only activate 2 or 3 at once.

-Ken

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT IV

Gunter and Cain arrived at the Pandemonium Fortress, the last bastion of heaven's power before the gates of the burning hells. It was a remarkable sight to see and Gunter felt a mix of feelings -- humility at seeing the wondrous and legendary place, pride about being chosen to see it, and fear about the mission he was being asked to complete.

Cain told Gunter that he must find the Hellforge deep within the burning hells and destroy Mephisto's soulstone. It was the only way to vanquish Mephisto forever. The archangel Tyrael had another mission for him. He wanted Gunter to find the fallen angel Izual and free him from the demon that bound him. It wasn't enough that Gunter was being asked to walk into hell to save humanity. Tyrael also wanted Gunter to take what sounded like an unnecessary side trip.

As Gunter walked away from Tyrael, he muttered under his breath, "Oh, great. Now you want me to run errands for you. You're the freak'n archangel around here. You free your friend, you ungrateful hypocrite. I don't even know what side you're on anymore. It seems like every time you meddle in things, you only make things worse."

Cain heard Gunter muttering and asked, "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," Gunter replied.

Gunter took a deep breath and walked out onto the Outer Steppes of hell.




If the start of Act III was easy, the start of Act IV was just the opposite. It was hard. No, this is not one of those stories where I accidentally had the game set in 8-player mode. There's just a big difficulty jump between hell Act III and hell Act IV in 1.10, and I've felt this jump even with my twinked characters. Monster hit points and corresponding life regeneration rises noticeably and monsters hit a lot harder in Act IV than they do in Act III.

The Outer Steppes had Flesh Spawners, Cliff Lurkers (leapers), and Doom Knights. If you Taunt the Flesh Spawners, they'll stop making baby Flesh Beasts and come try to melee you. Once they reach melee range, however, they'll go back to making babies as one of their "attacks." Of course, if you stun them with War Cry, that'll stop. If you Taunt Cliff Lurkers, they won't leap attack you. Instead, they'll walk slowly up to you to try to melee you. If you cast War Cry on them, they'll be knocked back out of the range of a second War Cry attempt, so you have to knock them into some kind of wall. Or in Gunter's case, I cast Firewall twice on the stunned lurkers to cook them. So the process went Taunt-War Cry-Firewall-Firewall = dead Lurker. The Doom Knights are fire immune, so all you can do is spam War Cry.

Gunter wasn't in a lot of danger in the Outer Steppes, because the monsters were all melee monsters and the War Cry kept him safe. However, because of the higher monster hit points and life regeneration rate, it was taking a lot more casts to kill things. This seems like a good place to answer an excellent question posted by galzohar at diabloii.net (I'm posting these reports to three different sites, so pardon me if you've seen this).

galzohar asked, "I was wondering - does your firewall actually kill anything? I remember a 99 naked sorc with max firewall/mastery had trouble getting a kill in A5 hell."

It's been OK in 1-player mode so far. Gunter does have one advantage over true sorceresses in that he can stun monsters and keep them nicely in the Firewall. I'm sure that in the latter stages of hell, the Firewall will be a very difficult spell to kill things with, though. I mostly use it as a supplemental skill.

Here's the idea. Firewall has a 1-second timer and lasts for 3.6 seconds. For now, Gunter has 50% fast cast, allowing him to cast 2.5 times a second. Per MMAgCh at the Amazon Basin's suggestion, I've started trying to more aggressively shop for a Bahamut's wand of the Magus which would allow Gunter to cast at a rate of 9 fps or 2.8 times a second while keeping his mana pool high. No luck so far, but I'll keep trying. Rounding the numbers, let's say that Gunter can cast three times a second and that he can keep up 3 firewalls on a monster at a given time. He does on average 630 physical damage with War Cry which is not timered and 835 fire damage/second with Firewall. Then, one gets:

Without Firewall: Damage = 1890 physical damage/second (three War Cry casts)

With Firewall, ideally one can keep up three Firewalls on a monster at one time and spam War Cry twice a second in between casting the Firewall, so one gets: Damage=1260 physical damage, 2505 fire damage/second.

So, ideally, the Firewall gives a nice damage boost in addition to being useful against physical immunes. Before choosing to use the Firewall on a monster pack, though, you have to think about the fact that the Firewall only attacks a few monsters at a time whereas War Cry can hit an entire group of monsters. So, if you use the Firewall/War Cry combination, you might end up doing less damage over all -- 1260 physical damage/second instead of 1890 physical damage/second on the monsters that aren't being cooked by the Firewall. However, there's no doubt that the Firewall is an effective attack against individual targets you want to take out like bosses and champions.

(Please don't nitpick the math. I'm a graduate student who's studying astrophysics, so I know my stuff when it comes to mathematics and I could if I wanted to come up with a precise calculation of the ideal time-averaged damage Gunter does per second. However, I'm trying to keep the calculation simple and use round numbers to explain how, when, and why I use Firewall. It's the idea that's important -- not the precise numbers).



The Plains of Despair had Flesh Spawners, Venom Lords, and everyone's favorite monster, Burning Souls (Gloams). The Flesh Spawners were Taunted and killed as described above. The Venom Lords were a pain, because their life regeneration is incredibly high. To conserve potions, I stopped trying to damage them with my spells and instead just held them down with the occasional War Cry and let my mercenary take them out.

The Burning Souls were only a mild annoyance for Gunter compared to the problems that most characters have with them. The biggest problem is that they can shoot you from off screen and you often get attacked from multiple directions. But a simple Taunt cast on each of the Burning Souls (if they're off screen, then you spam Taunt at the edge of the screen) effectively neutralizes them. They stop shooting and come right next to you. I'm not even sure if they shoot you when they're next to you. I stunned them with War Cry before I could find out. Warning: This does not mean that you don't have to worry about lightning resistance in areas with Burning Souls or Gloams. It still takes time to cast Taunt on each of the Gloams and you do take hits while you're doing that.



I found Izzy, cleared out his minions, and then focused on him. I went to town twice to refresh mana potions but the fight wasn't dangerous. A Flesh Spawner and Venom Lord got woken up near the end of the fight, but as you can see in the picture, the spammed War Cries kept them at bay. I used the two skill points from the quest reward to finish maxing out Taunt.

I walked up the stairs to the City of the Damned and found the waypoint almost immediately. I walked around a little to see what monsters were there in the City of the Damned. Stranglers, Corpse Spitters, and I forget what else. The Stranglers were Taunted and stunned per usual. After killing a couple of monster packs, I decided not to waste my time anymore. I was anxious to get to the hellforge. If I got an Um, I could make a 'Crescent Moon' hyperion spear for my merc. If I got a Mal, I could socket his spear with it and have Prevent Monster Heal even against poison immunes. If I got an Ist, I could make a 'Delirium' crown. (Yes, I got a Lem from my nightmare hellforge, and I figured out that if I cube up about half my saved runes, I could make an Io).

[MongoJerry]

The River of Flame had Flesh Spawners, Blood Lords, and Abyss Knights. The Flesh Spawners and Blood Lords were dealt with in the usual manner. The Abyss Knights were slightly more tricky. Taunt is also fantastic with them. They'll stop casting spells at you and instead come try to melee you. If they're shooting at you from off screen, you can Taunt the edge of the screen to get them to stop and come to you. That's great, but there's a big caveat when Taunting Abyss Knights in the River of Flame. Remember, if a Taunted monster's path finding routine can't find a good way to get to you, the monster will come as close as it can and then resume it's normal AI. In the RoF, there are lots of twists, turns, and ledges, so you have to be more aware of the terrain and position yourself in a location where you're confident that a Taunted Abyss Knight can easily find its way to you. Once you've Taunted a monster, you can't Taunt it again (unless you waypoint to another act and come back), so if you make a mistake and Taunt an Abyss Knight who can't get to you, then you either have to be able to accept the punishment of his attacks or leave the pack of monsters you're dealing with and run/leap attack over to the Abyss Knight and stun him with War Cry.



I got to the leading edge of the hellforge area and Taunted the edge of the screen to bring out monsters so I wouldn't have to deal with them at the same time as battling Hephasto. It was a modestly successful strategy -- I lured away and killed about a half a dozen monsters that way before Hephasto himself came out. I led him to a safe area where we wouldn't be disturbed by other monsters. I wasn't all that worried about fighting Hephasto after witnessing Grizabella's surprisingly easy battle with him. Defensively, Gunter is built similarly to Grizabella -- 75% block and max resistances (Hephasto's always spectral hit) -- and has about 50% more hit points than she did. Probably the most annoying thing about fighting him with Gunter was that he came up Mana Burn, so he kept draining Gunter's mana ball. In this case, the gradual mana recharge of blue mana potions helped. Hephasto's hit would drain Gunter's mana ball, but the ball would keep recharging from the blue potions and still allow Gunter to cast at a decent rate. I may have had to go to town once or twice to refresh mana potions, but Gunter was never in any danger during the battle.

And so, the moment of truth came. Would it be an Um to make a 'Crescent Moon'? A Mal to enable Prevent Monster Heal? An Ist to make a 'Delirium' crown? Or perhaps a Vex to get Gunter closer to making a 'Heart of the Oak'? And Gunter got...



A Gul?! Aw, cr**. That was about the most useless rune that Gunter could've gotten. On the realms, someone who wanted to cube up to a Vex or Ohm might be willing to trade an Um or Ist for it, but for Gunter, it was practically worthless. Who knows? Maybe Gunter will find a Jah so he can make a 'Fury' weapon. Yeah, that'll happen.

(Incidentally, if an Ist had dropped, I wouldn't have made a 'Delirium' crown for my merc, because a lot of people would probably have thought that would've been cheesy. But it would've been fun to brag that I could've made an untwinked 'Delirium' crown).

I finished clearing the RoF and found the waypoint. There was one boss I decided to park, but otherwise the journey was uneventful.



Inside the Chaos Sanctuary, however, things got a little more hairy. Oblivion Knights (mages) can't be Taunted. The prudent strategy would be to use Taunt to draw off the minions and kill them away from the OK's. Then with most of the minions killed, the OK's could then be dealt with more safely and efficiently. The more reckless and less patient strategy would be to run at and/or leap attack a pack of OK's and stun them, hoping that you can take the pounding from the OK's that are out of the range of your War Cry while you kill the monster pack and that you don't wake up too many more monsters in the process. I chose the latter strategy. Gunter had 2500 hit points, max block, and max resistances. I figured he could take the pounding.

And pretty much he did. The boss OK in the screenshot above along with a couple other OK's in the area hurt enough that Gunter had to retreat a couple of times, but otherwise the damage taken while clearing the Chaos Sanctuary was manageable. Then, it was time to hit the seals.

[MongoJerry]

The Grand Vizier's pack came out and many of the minions immediately started shooting their mana drain attack (which was very annoying) and stayed out of range of War Cry. Yep, you guessed it, I Taunted each of them and they stopped using their mana drain attacks, gathered in a nice stunned circle, and waited patiently to be burned to a crisp or poked with a big pointy stick. The pack fell quickly.



I hit De Seis's seal and when De Seis's pack came out I got a little too cocky. I figured Gunter could take whatever De Seis could dish out, so I leap attacked the whole pack of Doom Knights and started spamming War Cry.

It wasn't a good idea. De Seis was being allowed to dish out free attacks and those attacks hurt. After quaffing a couple of full rejuv potions, because the red ones weren't healing me fast enough, I decided it was time to back off. I leap attacked past the pack into the main part of the Chaos Sanctuary and then used Taunt to lure the Doom Knight minions away one or two at a time so that they could be safely killed away from De Seis. Once all of De Seis's minions were dead, Gunter and his mercenary could focus on De Seis himself and he died without further incident.



As everyone knows by now, the Infector got a major upgrade in 1.10 and he and his minions' infernos can really hurt. About half of Infector's pack rushed to surround and melee Gunter and the other half bunched up behind the ones in front and cast their infernos. But a few simple Taunts took care of that. (I told you in my very first posting that these adventures would be brought to you by the skill Taunt). The Taunted Venom Lords stopped casting their infernos and circled around to try to melee Gunter -- which means that they got in the range of War Cry. After that, all that was left to do was take out the Infector himself.

That's when I realized just how stupid the above strategy was. If the Infector had turned out to be immune to physical as well as his usual immune to fire like he was for Grizabella, then I'd be in real trouble. Or at least, I'd be in an awkward situation of having to keep a pack of minions at bay with my War Cry while trying to kill the Infector with the pathetic amount of non-fire elemental damage I and my merc are able to deal. If the Infector had spawned as immune to physical, I would've leap attacked out of there, tp'd to town, taken a waypoint to another act to clear the Taunts on the minions, come back, and used the same strategy I used with De Seis -- Taunt minions away from the pack and kill them one or two at a time and then take on the Infector when he's alone.

However, it turns out the Infector wasn't immune to physical, and my mercenary focused on the Infector right from the start and took him down. I kept the minions stunned and let my mercenary mop them up. I haven't quite figured out all of the quirks of the mercenary AI, so I'm not sure if the mercenary just attacks whatever monster is closest or if he attacks the last monster that hit him as long as the target is in range. Whichever one it is, it works well for Gunter, because in a large pack of stunned monsters that includes a boss, the mercenary often ends up attacking the boss as either the first or second monster he attacks. This is either because the other monsters stay at the edge of War Cry's range and the boss can come in the circle and therefore he will be the closest target or else the boss is the only one doing damage to the mercenary, so the boss gets targeted. Either way, it works well.

By the way, in the screenshot above, you can see that the Infector, the guy in blue, is also stunned with the rest of the pack. Bosses and champions do get stunned by War Cry every once in a while. I read an old singing barb guide that was written before LoD was released that said that War Cry would stun bosses if they're less than a yard away, but all of the testing I've done hasn't shown that to be the case anymore. I've tried all kinds of tricks to try to make the stun work on bosses and champions in a repeatable way but nothing has worked. At this point, I think it might be a random effect -- like there's a 5% chance on each War Cry cast that a boss or champion will get stunned or something like it. It sure is nice when it happens.

Gunter leveled in the middle of the battle with the Infector's pack. He became an 82nd level barbarian mage. I dropped the skill point into Howl, and then it was time to take on Diablo.



I replaced Gunter's 30% magic finding amulet with the Rising Sun amulet he found in the Arcane Sanctuary. It gives +2 to fire skills and absorbs 61 points of fire damage (based on character level) among other stats. I hit the seal, walked onto the central platform and waited for Diablo to appear.

And I had the most pathetic fight I've ever had with hell Diablo in my life. Understand that I'm an old D2 hand who was #13 on the USWest hardcore sorceress ladder right before LoD came out (Ariel_hc). My sorceress was built for taking out Diablo, because that was the only way to level back then once you got to the high 80's. I can't tell you how many hundred times I killed him, and yet there was always that ever present fear. Was this the time I was going to lag right in the middle of Diablo's lightning breath? Was this the time I'd get tripped up on something and be too slow to recover with potions?

This Diablo is just a hollow shell of that formerly dangerous beast. His lightning breath? Laughable. It doesn't even start for several yards. If Blizzard is going to nerf Diablo this way, then they should at least have his AI know not to bother shooting the lightning breath against characters who are standing right next to him. His fire attack? Pathetic with max fire resist. As Grizabella showed, the damage is easily repairable with red potions. In Gunter's case, the Rising Sun amulet made it so that he took absolutely no damage from any of Diablo's fire attacks. That left Diablo with just his melee attack which is always pathetic and even more so against someone with 75% block. I quaffed two full rejuv potions during the battle -- not to repair damage but to recharge the mana ball. I didn't want to bother going back to town to refresh potions. This guy wasn't worth the trouble.

So Diablo died without any trouble at all. He dropped a rare ring, a rare mancatcher, and an Atma's Wail. The ring and mancatcher ended up being junk, but the Atma's Wail is kind of cool. If it had some resistances on it, I'd give it to my merc, but it's a nice haul nonetheless. I'll mule it away for a future character.


So Gunter did the impossible. He traveled deep into the burning hells and not only destroyed Mephisto's soulstone but also fought and defeated Diablo himself in his own lair.

Gunter returned to the Pandemonium Fortress and told Cain and Tyrael all that he had done. He wondered what his father would say now about his odd barbarian mage son and felt a longing to return home and tell his friends and family all that he had done.

Just then Tyrael told Gunter some disturbing news. Baal was still alive and intended to open a rift that would allow the minions of hell to poor out into the mortal realm. What's more, he had gathered a great army that was attacking not just any city but Gunter's own home, the ancient citadel of Harrogoth, which guarded the Worldstone that maintained the separation between the mortal realm and hell. Gunter must return to Harrogoth not to tell his tale but to save his homeland and the world from destruction.

Gunter raced into Tyrael's portal to Harrogoth. He couldn't see how a simple barbarian mage like himself could make a difference when there were so many more powerful warriors manning Harrogoth's defenses. But Gunter knew that he had to go home and help his people in any way he could.

[Ahvae'el]

I am very pleased that you didn't get Delirium. It is way too cheap + powerful, in my opinion.

Did you ever consider having a paladin wear those trang's pieces, a Dragonscale shield, and then use conviction and meditation synergized with prayer with the firewall/hydra/meteor? I think that would make for a very unique, powerful fighter mage. Albeit a little item dependent. But hey, the trang's things on Gunter mean we aren't talking about being constrained by items when thinking about this build; it's obviously a twinky build.

I hope A5 is palatable for Gunter; it can be so hard soloing even on players 1!

Buena Suerte Mongo.

[Wapptor]

I'm reading the end of your post and cringing, so I have to ask the question. Is Diablo in 1.1 actually EASIER than he is in 1.09?! I always liked how scary he was in 1.09 and if it's so that the game's namesake is a pushover now, i'm kinda dissapointed.

-Wapptor

[Occhidiangela]

Is that you, Ariel? Was this yet another conversation twixt Occhi and Ariel --

"Andariel? Who runs around naked and spits poison!"

If so, how nice to see you again! :D

If not, sorry for the misidentification.

[MongoJerry]

Did you ever consider having a paladin wear those trang's pieces, a Dragonscale shield, and then use conviction and meditation synergized with prayer with the firewall/hydra/meteor? I think that would make for a very unique, powerful fighter mage. Albeit a little item dependent. But hey, the trang's things on Gunter mean we aren't talking about being constrained by items when thinking about this build; it's obviously a twinky build.

I tried to twink him as minimally as possible -- just the three Trang's pieces which are the minimum that would allow him to cast Firewalls and therefore allow him to be classied as a "mage." I chose to use a barbarian, because barbarians are the least magical of the character classes, so the ridiculousness and humor of it all is maximized. Besides, it gave me a chance to experiment around with the left side of the War Cry tree which as everyone knows is very underutilized. On diabloii.net and the Amazon Basin, I've gotten a few messages from people saying that they never knew that Taunt could do all the stuff I've been talking about.

Back to your paladin idea, that sounds like a fun build. On a practical level, he might have a lot of crowd control problems, though, if he can't kill things fast enough. Also, you'd need to figure out a practical way to deal with fire immunes or figure out a way to keep your merc safe while he/she takes care of them.

I'm reading the end of your post and cringing, so I have to ask the question. Is Diablo in 1.1 actually EASIER than he is in 1.09?! I always liked how scary he was in 1.09 and if it's so that the game's namesake is a pushover now, i'm kinda dissapointed.

I haven't played enough 1.09 to know if there's any change (I took 18 months off of playing D2 and only returned in June). I've always thought Diablo was kind of easy in 1.09, though, because of how his lightning breath doesn't start for several yards. If you're trying to missle fire him as a bowazon or sorceress, then yeah he can be scary. But if you go toe-to-toe with him so that he can't charge you or use his lightning breath and you have maxed fire resistance as I always do, then he's not hard at all.

Is that you, Ariel? Was this yet another conversation twixt Occhi and Ariel --

"Andariel? Who runs around naked and spits poison!"

If so, how nice to see you again!

Nice to see you're still around, too, Occhi! You bet I remember you and Bolty and Jarulf and the whole gang. I thought that the Lurker Lounge had died two years ago when Bolty said he didn't want to run it anymore and was sick of all of the idiots who'd started spamming the boards with their idiocy. Was that just a ruse to get rid of the idiots? I didn't know the LL was still around until someone mentioned it in passing on a diabloii.net board. I was very excited when I confirmed that it was.

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V BLOODY FOOTHILLS

Gunter arrived in Harrogoth to find his homeland under siege by Baal's army. Outside Harrogoth's walls, demons swarmed the once fair farmlands and grazing lands of his people and catapults rained death upon the city. The proud barbarian inhabitants of Harrogoth continued to fight, but a palpable sense of despair wafted through the air. While the center of the city seemed largely untouched by Baal's forces, it was clear that the barbarians were fighting a losing battle outside the city walls for the stream of stretchers carrying the wounded and dead back into the city seemed endless.

The inhabitants of Harrogoth were shocked to see Gunter appear so suddenly in their town square. They gathered around him and demanded an explanation. Some wondered openly if he might be a spy or minion of Baal for Gunter's face and bearing had changed so much in the time he was away that the crowd did not recognize him. When Gunter identified himself and asked about his father, suspicion turned to anger.

"At last the prodigal son returns!" said one mockingly. "Your father is dead along with all of the other council elders, save for our 'esteemed' leader Nihlathak. They sacrificed themselves to place a ward on the city to protect it from the ravages of Baal's army, but it is clear that Harrogoth will not be safe forever. Your father cursed you before he died for he was ashamed that his son would abandon his homeland in its greatest hour of need to go off on some fool's errand. Now you return when there is no longer any hope. No doubt that when Harrogoth falls, you will run with the women and children while true warriors stand their ground to fight, and then you'll claim deeds of valor when in truth you are nothing but a coward."

Murmurs of agreement rose from the crowd. Gunter tried to explain himself. He yelled that he had defeated Mephisto and had killed Diablo in the very heart of hell itself, but the crowd just laughed. "No doubt you can tell a great tale," said the first speaker. "But Harrogoth needs mighty warriors -- not able bards and storytellers. Leave! We have no need for cowards here."

Stunned, Gunter made his way through the murmuring crowd and out of the town square. He intended to find whoever was the military leader of the city and offer his services in whatever capacity he would be allowed. But when he found Qual-Kehk, the senior Man-at-Arms, he got a cold reception.

"My men told me that you had returned," said Qual-Kehk. "As I recall, before you left us you were unskilled in the use of any weapons. In fact, you refused to cooperate with your weapons masters. Tell me, have you learned to fight with a sword, a mace, a spear, or even a bow in your long travels away from home?"

When Gunter replied that he hadn't, Qual-Kehk said, "I will not assign a useless man to a unit. Not only will you get yourself killed but you'll probably cost the other men their lives as well. Begone!"

Gunter stormed away from Qual-Kehk without knowing where to go next. He passed by the smithy owned by Larzuk, an old friend of Gunter's family. He hoped that Larzuk would listen to him and perhaps persuade Qual-Kehk to change his mind. When Gunter walked inside the shop, Larzuk and his workers were busy forging and repairing weapons. Larzuk greeted Gunter with cold politeness and as Gunter told the tale of his adventures, Larzuk continued his work in silence. Finally, as Gunter related the climatic battle against Diablo, a fiery catapult shot exploded nearby, sending everyone in the smithy running for cover.

"Enough!" Larzuk shouted. "I have listened to your ravings for an hour out of courtesy for the memory of your father, but I can't hear anymore. If you want others to believe even half of what you've said you've done, then prove it! Go out and end the siege of Harrogoth. Kill Shenk the Overseer who leads the siege and destroy those infernal catapults. Then you can return here and we'll see about getting people to listen to your wild stories."

Gunter realized Larzuk was right. If he wanted people to listen to him, he had to prove himself in battle. He didn't need to be placed in a unit. Had he not taken on the vast hordes of hell with his trusted mercenary Mizan as his only companion? He would end the siege or die trying.

He came upon the city gates and in a booming War Cry ordered the city gates to be opened. The guards scrambled to open the gates for they had never heard such a commanding cry. Gunter and Mizan walked out and joined the pitched battle being waged on the Bloody Foothills. Could they alone turn the tide of battle and end the siege of Harrogoth?


When I walked out onto the Bloody Foothills, I wanted something good for Gunter to fight to prove himself. I didn't want flying crows or lashers. I wanted a real challenge.



So I was pleased to find the Bloody Foothills swarming with Burning Dead Archers and Slingers. I'm sure you're expecting me to wax melodiously about how wonderful Taunt was here and for they most part you're right. Mostly, I walked forward slowly, taunted groups of skeletons and slingers to me, stunned them with War Cry and killed them. Rinse and repeat. However, like in the River of Flame, one has to be aware of one's terrain in the Bloody Foothills, because there are a lot of pits and crevices that can prevent a Taunted monster from closing to melee range.



For example, Taunting the burning dead archer in the above screenshot was clearly a mistake. The archer came forward a step, couldn't find its way to me, and immediately resumed shooting at us. A Taunted monster can't be Taunted again, so the only thing one can do is run/leap attack over there and kill the Taunted archer where it is (and probably wake up other archers and slingers in the process) rather than draw it to you. Before Taunting a monster, make sure to position yourself in a location where you're confident that the monster can easily find its way to you.



Here's another interesting problem. Take a look at the archer in the upper left corner of the screenshot above. It's been Taunted and it looks like he has an easy straight path down the stairs to get to us, so why is he shooting arrows at us rather than walking calmly down the stairs?

It turns out that the other archers in the picture were in a tight group up where that skeleton is. While spamming Taunt, I mistakenly Taunted the archer in back of the group first before the archers in front. The archer in back couldn't find a way to us, because he ran into his buddies who hadn't been Taunted yet. He stopped and returned to his normal AI -- shooting at us -- even though his buddies were Taunted and started moving a moment later. A monster who has already been Taunted can't be Taunted again, so the archer got to keep shooting at us the whole time while we were stunning and killing his buddies.

Incidentally, the Slinger in the upper right corner of the screenshot is in a position to be Taunted. Slingers are fast and fast monsters seem to have less difficulty running around small corners than slow ones like archers.



Other than those type of small problems, the Bloody Foothills was a methodical cakewalk. I had to revive my mercenary only once -- when I raced forward to try to get a good action screenshot with lots of skeletons and slingers in it (see the first picture). Otherwise, using Taunt to draw monsters to me, I was able to take on most monsters in small groups at a time. I drew off and slew Shenk's minions and Shenk himself fell without any trouble.


Gunter returned triumphantly to Harrogoth. Barbarian warriors who had fought in the battle spread news of Gunter's courage and prowess throughout the city. The inhabitants spoke in awe of Gunter's booming War Cry and how he was able to make fire spring forth from the very ground. For the first time in a long time, the people had a reason to celebrate.

Gunter returned to Larzuk who said, "Your 'wild tales' don't do you justice for they tell of only half your bravery. I will personally craft sockets into an item of your choosing that will allow you to place a magical jewel, rune, or gem into it and make you even more powerful. Come, let us go talk to Qual-Kehk. I'm sure that he'll find a mission to assign to you now."