Gunter, the Barbarian Mage

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V FRIGID HIGHLANDS

Qual-Kehk shook his head in amazement when Gunter and Larzuk walked into the room. His battle commanders had told him all that Gunter had done to turn the tide of battle. He apologized to Gunter for his earlier rude behavior and told Gunter that his father would've been proud of his son if he were still alive. Gunter thanked Qual-Kehk for his words and said that he would be willing to do whatever it took to protect Harrogoth and defeat the forces of Baal.

Qual-Kehk had a mission for Gunter. Many barbarian warriors were being held prisoner deep behind enemy lines in the Frigid Highlands. Qual-Kehk worried that Baal's demons might torture them for information or for sport and Qual-Kehk wanted them rescued before it was too late. Gunter quickly accepted the mission and set out to find the prison camps.



In addition to the usual Siege Beasts and Imps, the Frigid Highlands were populated by Blunderbores and more Burning Dead Archers. In the open areas of the Frigid Highlands, the going was easier than it was in the Bloody Foothills, because Gunter could Taunt everything without worrying about the terrain. Incidentally, it wasn't worth casting Firewall on the Burning Dead Archers, because they died fast enough with War Cry alone. Blunderbores have a lot of life regeneration, however, so they required liberal use of Firewall and War Cry to kill.

In the walled areas, things were slower, because the mercenary often gets distracted by Barricaded Towers, but things didn't get any more dangerous. One thing that was unfair was that Burning Dead Archers could shoot through the Barricaded Tower while they couldn't be attacked through them. But otherwise the going was pretty smooth.

I also discovered some interesting things regarding how Taunt affects Imps and Siege Beasts. First, if you Taunt Imps, they won't teleport anymore and they won't jump into Siege Beasts and Barricaded Towers. If you Taunt a Siege Beast and then an Imp jumps into it, then the Imp won't use its inferno attack. He'll just use his fireball attack as if he were still on the ground. If you Taunt the Siege Beast after an Imp has already jumped onto it, however, the Imp will go ahead and use its inferno attack. The Siege Beast will walk toward you into melee range, but the Imp will use its inferno attack the whole time.



Gunter found and rescued all of the barbarian prisoners. Gunter and Mizan provided cover for the prisoners as they took their townportal back to Harrogoth. As the prisoners waited their turn to enter the townportal, they stared in amazement at their strange rescuer. Was this really the same Gunter they used to ridicule for his silly dream of becoming a sorcerer? These were strange times indeed when the fate of Harrogoth and perhaps the world seemed to rest on the shoulders of one as strange as this remarkable barbarian mage.

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V ANYA

The citizens of Harrogoth celebrated the lifting of the siege and the return of the prisoners of war well into the night. City leaders hastily organized a banquet in Gunter's honor, and Gunter heard toast after toast praising his bravery and prowess in battle. Nihlathak, the purported leader of Harrogoth, was conspicuous by his absence, however. After Gunter had eaten and drunk his fill, he finally begged his leave from the assembled guests for he had a long overdue reunion to attend.

Gunter knocked on the town healer's door and the elderly Malah greeted him with a hug and an enormous smile. After seeing so much death and misery in her halls of healing, Malah said it was good to see Gunter again alive and in good health. Gunter told Malah how he'd proved his worth to Esmerelda and finally fulfilled his dream of becoming a sorcerer. Then he told her all about his adventures at the Rogue Monastery and Lut Gohlein and all about his epic battles against two of the three prime evils, Mephisto and Diablo. Malah listened to every word he said with a mixture of awe and wonder in her eyes.

Finally, Gunter concluded his tale and asked Malah to tell him all that had happened in Harrogoth. Malah's face saddened. She told Gunter that her son, Bannuk, had been killed in the first battle with Baal's army. She blamed herself for his death. "I know you and my son, Bannuk, did not part on the best of terms," said Malah. "But I wish I had encouraged him to go with you. He might still be alive today."

Gunter comforted Malah for some time and told her not to blame herself for Bannuk's death. Then Gunter asked Malah the question he had wanted to ask ever since he returned to Harrogoth. "What exactly happened to my father?" he asked.

Malah looked sadly into Gunter's eyes. "Your father gave his life to save Harrogoth," she said. "The war was going badly for us and at any moment the city walls were going to be breached. The town elders sacrificed themselves to make a powerful ward to keep Baal's army at bay. After the ward was created, Baal realized that his victory wasn't going to be as quick as he thought it would be, so he left Shenk the Overseer to lay siege to the city and went up Mount Arreat to look for something. I know not what."

Gunter told Malah how the townspeople had told him that his father had cursed him for abandoning Harrogoth before he died. Malah shook her head vigorously. "No! That's horrible," she said. "People can be so cruel when their hearts are full of fear. I was with your father until the end. He wished you were here not because he was ashamed of you but because he wanted to tell you he was sorry that he did not encourage your magical studies and in essence forced you to leave Harrogoth to fulfill your dream. He thought it was ironic that after disparaging your studies of magic that he would end up sacrificing his life to create a magical ward to protect Harrogoth. He loved you very much and was proud that you were strong enough to continue pursuing your dream even when everyone ridiculed you for it."

Gunter paused and took the news in. He wanted to see his father again even if it was only for one last time. Then a thought occurred to him and he asked, "If the elders had to be sacrificed to create the ward, then why was Nihlathak allowed to live?"

Malah replied, "You aren't the first person to ask that question. Nihlathak claims that he was selected by the elders to stay behind and lead the people, but there is no mention in our literature that says that the spell that creates the ward allows for any of the elders to survive. Some speculate that the ward isn't as strong as it could be because of Nihlathak's actions, and few believe that the elders would have chosen Nihlathak of all of the elders to stay behind. Because of these doubts, no one will follow Nihlathak's directives and instead the people have taken to listening to Anya, a young alchemist and daughter to one of our slain elders who is a strong crafty woman with a spirit like no other.

"But I fear for her safety for the night before your arrival, I overheard her and Nihlathak arguing about her father's death. The next morning, she was gone. Nihlathak has his own tale as to where she went and why. Don't believe him! I fear he is at the root of her disappearance. Please, if you can, search for Anya and bring her back to us. She'll know what to do about Nihlathak."

Gunter bid Malah goodnight and promised Malah that he'd begin his search for Anya at the first light of day. There were strange happenings in Harrogoth. Could Gunter find Anya and discover what Nihlathak was up to?



The Arreat Plateau had Slingers, Hell Whips, and Fire Boars. It was pretty straightforward stuff. If you Taunt the Hell Whips, they'll stop whipping their minions into a frenzy and instead will close to melee range and whip you. Of course, then they'll be stunned by War Cry, so that's a good thing.

I found a Twitchthroe and a Raven Claw on the Arreat Plateau. Neither of them will be useful for Gunter, but they're a further indication that the unique drop rate has definitely improved in 1.10s.



The Crystalline Passage had Claw Vipers, Bone Mages, and Dark Archers. All of them were easily Taunted and stunned. If you Taunt Claw Vipers, they won't use their charge attacks and instead they'll slither nice and slowly up to you to get stunned.

I found a Serpent Lord staff in the Crystaline Passage.



The Frozen river had Succubii, Sirens, and everyone's favorite monster, Gloams. Taunt again worked well against all of these monsters, although it got a little hairy in a few places when it seemed that lightning and fire balls were being fired at us from every direction. However, a heavy dose of Taunt at all edges of the screen usually managed to bring all of the Succubii, Sirens, and Gloams within War Cry range.



Otherwise, the going was pretty steady and after a long search, I finally found and resuced Anya.

I found an Iron Pelt in the Frozen River.

The celebrations in Harrogoth at Anya's return were tempered by the news of Nihlathak's treachery. Malah gave Gunter a magic scroll that improved his resistances against magical attacks a little bit. Then Gunter went to speak with Anya to find out what he must do to stop Baal and the treacherous Nihlathak.

Anya thanked Gunter for rescuing her. She presented him with a rare barbarian helm to honor him for his achievements. (ed. 12% chance to cast a lvl 4 charged bolt, +2 to increased speed, +10 to life, cold resist 9%).

Gunter said, "Um, thank-you. I will treasure this always. In fact, I think I'm going to give it to Larzuk for, uh, safe keeping."

So, Gunter rescued the maiden Anya. Will he be able to stop Nihlathak?

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V NIHLATHAK'S TEMPLE

Anya continued, "Nihlathak told me he struck a deal with Baal to protect Harrogath. In exchange for the demon's mercy, the misguided fool plans to give Baal the Relic of the Ancients, our most holy totem! Doing so will allow Baal to enter Mount Arreat unchallenged by the Ancients. I tried to stop Nihlathak, but he imprisoned me in that icy tomb.

Nihlathak must be stopped before he dooms the whole world. You must go to his lair through this portal I will open, kill him, and then bring back the Relic of the Ancients."

A portal opened next to Anya, and Gunter stepped inside it. Can he stop Nihlathak before it's too late?


I entered the portal to Nihlathak's Temple better prepared than I was when I did the same in nightmare difficulty. In nightmare difficulty, the charging Defiled Warriors who kept reviving themselves gave Gunter a little of trouble. But I knew what to do this time.



Like vipers, Taunted Defiled Warriors won't charge you. Instead, they'll slowly creep toward you into melee range where they can be stunned. What's more, if you run Find Item on a body, it can't be revived, so Defiled Warrior corpses on whom Find Item has been run won't wake up again.

So, I Taunted all of the warriors who came on the screen, stunned them with War Cry when they got in range, and then switched to the Heart Carver and ran Find Item every time one of them died. This process made short work of the Defiled Warriors outside the temple.



After Grizabella's scary experience with the newly beefed up Pindleskin, I was much more cautious with him this time. I crept inside the doorway to the temple and immediately spammed Taunt on all of Pindleskin's minions. I had to withstand a charge from Pindleskin himself, but otherwise, I since I was able to stun the minions, the pack fell without much trouble. I again ran Find Item on the pack to make sure everyone stayed dead.

I then walked into the Halls of Anguish which had Temple Guards, Horror Mages, and Tomb Creepers (leapers). This was pretty easy stuff and by luck the stairs down to the Halls of Pain happened to be roughly in the first direction I went. Incidentally, I found out that you can't run Find Potion on Horror Mages (skeletons) but that you can run Find Item on them. (OK, most of you probably knew that, but as I'm fairly inexperienced with barbarians, I didn't).



The Halls of Pain started off well with Temple Guards and Grotesques. Grotesques are a little tougher in that they have a lot of hit points and pump out little Grotesque Wyrms, but a simple Taunt on them stops them from making babies and their extra hit points just means that they need a few extra War Cry's and Firewalls to kill. No big deal. Then, I turned the corner.



Ah, great. Heirophants and their Zealot minions. Oh, well. At least if you taunt Heirophants, they'll stop healing minions and casting Blizzards and instead they'll calmly walk toward you. It often meant spamming Taunt on the edge of the screen to get all the Heirophants and their minions to come. The most annoying part was when the Heirophants would be in the next hallway -- around two corners -- and would cast Blizzard. There was nothing to do but take the hits and try to make one's way around the corners to take them out as quickly as possible.

I ended up having to practically do a full clear of the Halls of Pain before I found both the waypoint and stairs. I walked down the stairs to the Halls of Vaught and found Ghosts and Hell Temptresses. Both were physical immune, so most of the damage my mercenary and I could do was done by my Firewall. I took on one pack of monsters. My mercenary had a rough time of it and I quaffed a lot of mana potions. After spending much too long killing the pack, I decided it wasn't worth it. I quit out and rerolled the monsters. The experience also led me to think about the 6-socket pike I had muled away earlier. Maybe it'd be a good idea to socket it with five Ort's and a perfect emerald just to have a weapon to give to my merc when dealing with physical immunes.

The rerolled Halls of Pain spawned with blowdart flayers, razor spines (quill rats), and Night Lords. I took on a Night Lord just to see how Gunter would do, and he did OK, but when I saw a fanat Night Lord boss pack, I decided that I would see enough of Night Lords/Moon Lords on the way up to the Arreat Summit and that I really should hurry on to Nihlathak.

[MongoJerry]

The rerolled Halls of Vaught spawned with Arachs, Returned Archers, and Hell Temptresses. Hell Temptresses are physical immune, but I could deal with having one monster type that's physical immune. Taunt, War Cry, and Firewall easily took care of the Hell Temptresses, Returned Archers, and Arachs and after a small search, I finally found where Nihlathak was hiding.



I tp'd back to town and put on my Rising Sun amulet. Since corpse explosion partly involves fire damage, I figured it might help a little. Then I came back and drew away and killed all the monster minions in Nihlathak's main chamber. Taunt was very helpful with this as you can imagine. I also ran Find Item on all the bodies to make sure they couldn't be corpse exploded.

I then ran in to take on Nihlathak himself... and found that there was a group of four returned archers hiding in the back of the room. Abort! Abort! I Taunted them, led them out of the room, and ran Find Item on them, too.



Gunter had a much more difficult time with Nihlathak than Grizabella did. I think the reason for this is that for both of them, most of their power against individual targets comes from their mercenaries and Teleport is a huge advantage when one wants to quickly move one's mercenary and get him to attack a specific target. Every time Nihlathak teleported, it took time for both Gunter and his mercenary to respond. Meanwhile, Nihlathak had time to raise up a few minions who would then keep the mercenary busy and provide fodder for Nihlathak's corpse explosion.

The battle raged around the room. Sometimes, I managed to run Find Item on some of the corpses of the monsters my merc killed before Nihlathak cast his corpse explosion, but I still got hit with corpse explosion a few times and it did hurt. I had to back away a couple of times to heal myself with potions.



But through persistence and tenacity, Gunter did manage to take Nihlathak down.


Gunter killed Nihlathak and searched his body and the entire Temple. The Relic could not be found anywhere. He returned to Anya and told her all that had happened.

Anya said, "He must have already given the Relic to Baal. Now, Baal will not be tested when he reaches Arreat's summit. Damn Nihlathak!

"We have only one hope now. You must ascend Mount Arreat and take the test of the Ancients that will allow you to enter Mount Arreat and stop Baal before it's too late. The fate of our people and indeed the world rests in your hands."

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARREAT

Now that he knew that Baal had the Relic of the Ancients, Gunter knew he could brook no delay. He had to ascend Mount Arreat and stop Baal at all costs.




The Glacial Trail had Wraiths, Bone Mages, and Bone Warriors. This was a really easy draw. The Wraiths were immune to physical, but they're susceptible to fire, so Gunter's Firewall took them out easily.

At this point, I started running Find Potion on all the bodies rather than Find Item, because I wanted to be well stocked for the fight against the Ancients. I actually had muled away a lot of full rejuv potions, but I was getting impatient. I wanted to get to the Ancients as soon as possible and didn't want to mule. Incidentally, using Find Potion instead of Find Item made the killing a lot quicker as Gunter basically had an unlimited supply of mana potions. This meant that I could spam War Cry without worrying about conserving mana.



The Frozen Tundra had Demon Rascals (imps), Blood Temptresses, and Death Clans. Again, these were pretty standard Taunt-War Cry-kill battles which were made easier by the flat terrain. Gunter made 83rd level in the middle of the Tundra and I put the skill point into Howl and the stat points into enough dexterity to maintain 75% block and the rest into vitality. After finding the waypoint, I stepped into the Ancient's Way.



Things were a little more interesting here. The Ancients Way had Dark Lancers, Afflicted, and Frozen Terrors. When you Taunt Frozen Terrors, they'll stop using their arctic blast and instead come try to melee you. Taunted Afflicted will stop shooting their lightning balls, too. The battle with the Might Enchanted Amp Cursed lancer boss pictured above was a little hairy, but overall progress was steady.

By the time I found the waypoint and the entrance to the Arreat Summit, I still didn't have enough full rejuv potions to satisfy me. I wanted to have plenty of extra in case I had to restart the battle with the Ancients a few times. Since Frozen Terrors always shatter when they die, I wasn't getting as many potions in the Ancient's Way as I would've liked, so I went back out onto the Frozen Tundra and did a full clear there and in the Infernal Pit. In the Infernal Pit, Gunter had his first real battles with Night Lords (sorry I didn't get a good screenshot). He did fine.

By the end of those full clears, Gunter had his belt, cube, and most of his stash full of full rejuv potions. It was time to face the Ancients.



Gunter successfully completed the ascent of Mount Arreat. Will the Ancients find him worthy?

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V THE ANCIENTS

It's been interesting playing Gunter after having played Grizabella for so long. The two characters are studies in contrasts. On the one hand, Gunter is infinitely more powerful than Grizabella against large groups of monsters. As far as Gunter is concerned, who cares how large the pack is if all the monsters in it are stunned? On the other hand, Grizabella is much more powerful against solo opponents with her ability to use Teleport to position her merc properly and to rescue her merc if her merc needs it. When Gunter made it to the Arreat Summit, I thought about the advantages and disadvantages for each character when facing the Ancients:

Grizabella's advantages are:
1. She can Teleport to position her merc to target a specific target and to rescue herself or her merc when necessary.
2. She doesn't have to worry about mana for her attacks which is a big advantage, since one can't go back to town to refresh one's mana potions during this fight.
3. She can quickly static any non-lightning immune Ancients down to half their life. (again, a massive advantage)
4. She can leech life, although not enough to fully counter the damage the Ancients can do.

Gunter's advantages are:
1. He has a little more life.
2. His War Cry attack can hit more than one target at once.
3. His Battle Cry is slightly more powerful
4. I'm more experienced.

Needless to say, I didn't think Gunter's advantages came close to equaling Grizabella's advantages, so I was pretty scared.

I went to town and put on my Rising Sun amulet, both to make my Firewall a little more powerful and for its replenish life +10. Combined with the replenish life on the Trang Oul's helm, that gave me +15 to replenish life. I figured that if I got desperate and if there was only one Ancient left, I could run around and try to refresh my life and mana that way.

Then I had to choose whether I would use Life Tap or Battle Cry in the fight. I opted for Life Tap and switched out my +mana wand for my wand of Life Tap. I figured it would save on potions if my merc could keep himself alive. Plus I would need to quaff rejuv potions to keep casting, so it wouldn't matter too much if I took some extra damage. In addition, Battle Cry is additive and I figured at least one of the three Ancients would be amp cursed. A lvl 23 Battle Cry normally reduces damage by 47%, but if you're amped, that means that damage is increased by +100%-47%=+53%. So, in effect, if you're amped, Battle Cry only reduces the damage by about a quarter. That's nice, but I preferred keeping my merc alive with Life Tap.

I exchanged charms with rejuv potions from my cube and stash, came back to the summit, and in one trip made two stashes of rejuv potions on the ground. It was important to do this quickly and in as few trips as possible, because the computer will clean up potions left on the ground after a couple of minutes. The clock was already ticking.

I then went back to town, retrieved my charms (adding a couple of +life charms out of my stash that I'd saved for the occasion), came back to the summit, took a deep breath, and touched the alter.



The first thing I looked for was to see if any of the Ancients were immune to physical. None of them were. Check. So I cast Life Tap on Korlic and Talic and Battle Cry on Madawc and started battling Korlic and Talic while checking to see what auras and curses the three Ancients had. The three Ancients I had to fight were configured as follows:

Korlic (leaper): Cold immune, Mana Burn, Spectral Hit
Talic (whirlwinder): Fire immune, Fire Enchanted, Extra Strong
Madawc (thrower): Lightning immune, Cold immune, Cold Enchanted, Holy Freeze Enchanted

I waited for what I thought was the inevitable Amp and it never came. I was thrilled. I thought that this was a really good roll. It was up to the mercenary to decide which of the two melee Ancients we'd focus on first and he started attacking Korlic. That was a great choice for me, because he wasn't immune to fire, allowing me to use my Firewall on him.

I felt pretty good about things. The damage we were taking seemed manageable. In fact, I was quaffing potions more to give me mana than life. But then I realized that we were damaging Korlic and Talic very slowly. Perhaps my memory was playing tricks on me, but I thought that Grizabella had been able to do much more damage more quickly than this.

That's when I looked at my mercenary. Madawc's Holy Freeze had slowed him to a crawl. Even with Life Tap, he wasn't dealing enough damage to repair all the damage he was taking and he was sucking up rejuv potions because of it. I fought on, thinking that this draw still had to be better than a a set of amp cursed Ancients. But then something happened that changed my mind.



I spent a full belt's worth of rejuv potions and refreshed my belt from the stash on the ground. I'd managed to get Talic and Korlic down to about half their life by this point, so I thought that while it was going to be close, I might be able to take down Korlic and Talic before the potions on the ground got cleaned up and my belt got emptied. If I could kill Korlic and Talic, I felt pretty good about my chances of facing a Life Tap'd Madawc alone with my merc. Then my merc died.

I realized I hadn't kept the Life Tap on Talic and Korlic up and my merc got taken down before I realized that he was in trouble. At first I tried to fight on, but with all three Ancients focusing their power on me, I was using potions too quickly to be able to win this fight. TP.

I rescued the remaining rejuv's on the ground before they got cleaned up and revived my merc. It was clear that this was going to be a tough fight.

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V THE ANCIENTS PART II

I went back to town, collected some more rejuvs from the stash, came back to the summit, and made one big stash of rejuv's. It seemed silly to take the time to make two separate piles of potions again. I recollected my charms, refreshed my Battle Command, Battle Orders, and Shout, took a deep breath, and hit the alter.

And got a fanat aura enchanted amp cursed Ancient pack. TP.

This was not going well. I regrouped and hit the alter again.



No physical immunes, no holy freeze, no fanat. Check. Instead, I got:

Korlic (leaper): Cold immune, Spectral Hit, Amp Cursed
Talic (whirlwinder): Fire immune, Mana Burn, Amp Cursed
Madawc (thrower): Lightning immune, Spectral Hit, Extra Strong

Fine. I decided to try it. With all the possible combinations of Ancients, it's nearly impossible to get a "perfect" Ancients roll. Grizabella managed to beat a set of Ancients when two of them were Amp cursed. I might as well see if Gunter could do the same thing.



This time, I was vigilant about keeping the Life Tap up. Now that he wasn't slowed down by Holy Freeze, my merc was able to leech back all of the damage he was taking. Being amp cursed meant that I was quaffing potions more for life than mana this time, but the battle went pretty well as you can see in the screenshot above.

At about this time, I started worrying about the potions on the ground. Part of me wanted to keep on fighting and finish off Korlic, but my belt was running low. If the potions got cleaned up before I got a chance to refresh my belt, I'd be up a creek -- facing at least two Ancients without any potions.



So I ran up to the corner to refresh my belt. And three seconds later, my merc died.

It turns out that in all the excitement of battle and vigilance about casting Life Tap, I had forgotten to refresh Battle Orders in the middle of the battle. So when I ran up to get potions, the Ancients all turned on my amped merc and killed him almost instantaneously. Not casting Battle Orders also meant that each rejuv was only giving me half the life and mana I could have gotten each time. I could have stayed in the battle longer.

Even though Korlic and Talic were significantly damaged at this point, I was still facing the prospect of fighting all three Ancients solo while amped. Disappointed, I started a town portal and recovered the remaining rejuv's.



I revived my merc, made another (smaller by this point) stash of rejuvs in the corner, and hit the alter again.

This time, Madawc came out Conviction aura enchanted and Talic came out lightning enchanted. I tried fighting them, because at least we weren't being amped. But after quaffing a couple of rejuv's, I realized that there was no way we were going to be able to take that kind of punishment. TP.

Gunter's store of potions, once enormous, was rapidly being depleted. I went out into the Frigid Highlands and used Find Potion on monster bodies to collect another half dozen full rejuv's.

This was getting frustrating. This was the fourth time the Ancients had turned Gunter away. And yet I felt I was close. If I played nearly perfectly -- kept the Life Tap and Battle Orders up, managed potions correctly, and kept my merc alive -- then I felt Gunter could eventually beat the Ancients.

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V THE ANCIENTS PART III

I created the stash of full rejuv's in the corner again, refreshed my Battle Command, Battle Orders, and Shout, and hit the alter.



No physical immunes, no holy freeze, no fanat, no conviction. Check. The Ancients were instead:

Korlic (leaper): Lightning immune, Cold immune, Extra Fast, Lightning Enchanted
Talic (whirlwinder): Fire immune, Cold immune, Mana Burn, Cold Enchanted
Madawc (thrower): Lightning immune, Stone Skin, Teleportation

I waited again for the inevitable amp. It didn't happen. I couldn't believe it. This was just about the most perfect Ancients roll one could ask for. I'd knew I'd better not mess this one up!

I Life Tapped Korlic and Talic and cast Battle Cry on Madawc. I set up a system to make sure I wouldn't forget to recast Life Tap and Battle Orders. Every time I quaffed a rejuv, I recast Life Tap. Every other time I quaffed a rejuv, I recast Battle Command, Battle Orders, and Shout.



And the fight started very well. It may be difficult to see in the above screenshot, but both Korlic and Talic are stunned. Yes, on occasion, even the Ancients can get stunned.

At the point shown in the above screenshot, I started getting antsy about potions. Could I finish off Talic before the potions on the ground were cleaned up or should I go refill my belt now? If I went now, would my merc be OK? And would my merc go back to attacking Talic or might he switch to attacking Korlic instead?



I decided to risk it and take down Talic now. But were the potions still there?

[MongoJerry]

*Whew* Luckily, the potions were still there. (If you're wondering why I'm casting War Cry here, I accidentally hit my right mouse button while I took the screenshot). I refreshed my belt. These Ancients were toast.



It's a good thing I picked up the potions when I did, though. Five seconds later, the remaining potions on the ground disappeared.



I recast Battle Cry on Madawc and then it was time to take on Korlic.



Korlic was already badly hurt from the War Cry's that were cast at Talic, so it didn't take long to finish him off.

[MongoJerry]

After that, it was time to take on a fully healthy but very much alone Madawc. I kept Battle Cry on him, so he could hardly damage us, and I still had 13 full rejuv's in my belt after killing Korlic. This was going to be a cakewalk.



It was especially easy on the occasions when Madawc got stunned in the middle of my firewall.



Madawc was Stone Skin, meaning that he had a high resistance to physical attacks, so when I cornered him, I conserved mana by just using Firewall.



I only needed to quaff two more rejuv potions to finish Madawc off.


It was a long and strenuous battle for Gunter with many setbacks, but Gunter ultimately prevailed and was found worthy by the Ancients to enter Mount Arreat. Can he stop Baal before it's too late?

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V THE WORLDSTONE KEEP

After beating the Ancients, I wanted to take a break, but I couldn't. What if the game crashed or what if there was a power outage? I didn't want to have to beat the Ancients again just to be able to enter the Worldstone Keep. I took a deep breath and trudged on.



The Worldstone Keep Level 1 had Flesh Spawners, Ghoul Lords, and Black Lancers. It was pretty standard Taunt-War Cry-kill stuff. I found a rare Colossus Blade here, but it turned out to be junk. Too bad.



Level 2 had Black Souls (Gloams), Cadavers, and Returned Mages. Again, it was standard Taunt-War Cry-kill stuff, although during the Taunting phase we took a lot of damage from Black Souls and Returned Mages. I found the waypoint finally and took a much deserved break. I then wrote up the story of the battle against the Ancients for y'all to enjoy.



A few hours later (yes, the game and computer stayed up the whole time), I moved on to the Worldstone Keep Level 3 which had Blood Bosses (lashers), Fire Boars, Soul Killers (blowdart flayers), and Horror Mages. You can't Taunt the frenzied Fire Boars who suicide and blow up on you -- I guess you can't make them hate you any more. If you time it right, you can stun them with War Cry, however, and blow them up away from you. Sometimes I managed to do that, but other times I just had to accept the punishment which wasn't too bad with max fire resist.

I stepped down into the Throne of Destruction and was immediately set upon by a champion pack of Serpent Magi. Cool. I could handle those. The next thing to come along were Dark Lords (vampires). Taunt-War Cry-kill, no sweat. Finally, Doom Knights came on the screen. This was going to be easy. Then I realized something.



Where there are Doom Knights, there are Oblivion Knights. Groan. Oh, well. I've seen this show before. You can't Taunt OK's, but you can stun them with War Cry. So the best case scenario is to run up and stun a group of OK's and draw the other monsters to you. The worst case scenario is that you accept the punishment from the OK's while you finish off a pack of other monsters. Gunter has max resists and max block, so the damage the OK's dealt was manageable.

In the Throne of Destruction, I found both a +1 sorceress skills amulet and a +1 fire skills (sorceress only) amulet. Neither of them boosted Gunter's Firewall. *Shrug*

I did a full clear of the Throne of Destruction in order to have room to maneuver. Then, it was time to take on Baal's minions.

Gunter worked his way to the very heart of the Worldstone Keep. Will he be able to kill Baal's minions and enter the Worldstone Chamber before it's too late?

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V BAAL'S MINIONS

When it was time for Colenzo the Annihilator to come out, I figured there was no use in being subtle. I parked myself right where his pack would appear and spammed War Cry.



And Colenzo's pack fell without any problems.



Rinse and repeat for the most part with Achmel the Cursed. I did have to Taunt his Unraveler and skeletal mage minions to move them into the range of War Cry, but otherwise the fight was trivial.



I refreshed my potions in town, came back, and tried the same thing with Bartuc the Bloody. But his pack appeared in a different spot than I expected and didn't get stunned right away. My merc died before I realized he was in trouble -- I think from a combination of Bartuc's lightning and the hydras that were springing up. Once the pack was stunned, however, they weren't dangerous anymore, so I decided to finish off the pack myself. After the fight, I went back to town to refresh potions and revive my merc.



I waited for Ventar the Unholy's pack to come out and spammed War Cry when it did. Most of the pack was quickly stunned. For the most part, I just held down the Venom Lords and tanked the damage that Ventar himself dealt while my merc did the actual killing. The pack members healed too quickly for my War Cry to do much real damage to them.

Up next: Lister

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V LISTER



Lister's minions can't be Taunted, but they can be stunned. I didn't want to start off in the middle of Lister's pack, so I backed off a little. When the pack appeared, I spammed War Cry, stunning all of Lister's minions, and cast Battle Cry to reduce the amount of damage Lister himself could deliver.

The plan worked well at first. My merc managed to kill two of Lister's minions before I ran out of red and blue potions and had to go back to town.



However, I did run into some problems after that. My merc started focusing on Lister which I thought was great, but every once in a while Lister would knock me and my merc back. Knocking me back meant that some of Lister's minions would wake up from their stuns and move around. Knocking my merc back meant that sometimes my merc would switch targets and would start attacking a minion. With my merc spreading his attacks over several targets, he wasn't killing anything and Lister was healing faster than my War Cry alone could deal damage. After making two trips to town to refresh potions without having killed anything, I decided it was time to switch tactics.



I decided to break up the pack and take out Lister first. I came back into the Throne of Destruction and stunned the pack. Then, I ran out of the room. Since Lister was the only monster who wasn't stunned, he was the only one who followed my merc and I out of the room. Now that Lister was alone, we were able to take him down easily.



Then we went back into the Throne of Destruction and I held down the minions while my merc took them out.


Gunter passed the test and defeated all of Baal's minions. He could now enter the Worldstone Chamber. Can he stop Baal before he dooms the world?

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: ACT V BAAL


I went to town, refreshed potions, donned the Rising Sun amulet, returned to the Throne of Destruction, and entered the Worldstone Chamber.



I ran around to the bridge and leap attacked next to Baal, positioning myself in the direction of one side of the bridge. That way, if Baal used his cold knockback attack, I wouldn't be knocked back very far and would stay within War Cry range of Baal.



Every once in a while, Baal would cast his clone and my merc often got fooled by it. The merc also often got tangled up by Festering Appendages. I had to expect to do most of the damage to Baal myself. Any damage my merc dealt to him was a bonus. Incidentally, if you're not sure which Baal is the clone and which one is the real Baal, attack one of them and wait for one of the Baals to teleport. The clone never teleports, so the teleporting Baal is the true Baal. Also, in single player, you can tp to town and the clone will disappear.



Whenever Baal teleported or whenever I needed to get to Baal after returning from town, I always used Leap Attack to get to him. This allowed me to jump his cold knockback attack (notice how my merc has been knocked back off the screen by Baal's attack while I'm still flying on my way toward Baal). Moving with Leap Attack also allowed me to not get tangled up by Festering Appendages.



Whenever I jumped next to Baal, though, I still always positioned myself so that I couldn't get knocked back.

[MongoJerry]

Baal teleported around a lot and I Leap Attacked around a lot. I also went to town a lot to refresh potions. I found that the slower mana regeneration of blue mana potions was better than the nearly instant mana regeneration of rejuv potions because of Baal's mana burn attack. If Baal uses his mana burn attack while you're using blue potions, then even though your mana ball empties, it'll continue to regen fast enough that you can continue to spam your attacks. If you use rejuv potions instead, the ball will empty and you'll have to quaff another potion before you can attack again.

Incidentally, every time I came back to town, I would visit the Frigid Highlands waypoint and recast Battle Command, Battle Orders, and Shout. That way they would always be up and I wouldn't have to cast them while I was in the middle of a battle with Baal.



The battle was long and hard. Baal teleported around a lot, but interestingly, he never left the bridge. I don't know if this was luck or had something to do with how I positioned myself when I was next to Baal.



The battle took 15 minutes to complete and involved many trips back to town. But Gunter was never in any real danger, and he ultimately prevailed. He got a Hellrack (unique colossus crossbow) for his efforts which was a pretty nice drop.



Peace returned to Sanctuary and the celebrations of Gunther's victory over Baal lasted for weeks. The people of Harrogoth buried their dead and life soon returned to normalcy -- or at least to as normal of a life as could be expected after such a brutal war. Anya and Gunter were each elected to be Elders of their respective clans and the people noticing how they looked at one another speculated that their clans may soon be joined.

But Gunter's heroic epic was not yet complete for reports arrived that told that there was a pack of demon hell cows who refused to go away quietly. Gunter once again donned his armor and weaponry and bid a fond farewell to Harrogoth. He promised Anya and Malah that he would return as quickly as he could.

Was Gunter ready to take on the challenge of the hell cows?

[Obi2Kenobi]

Also, the Baal clone has half as many HPs, and the name Baal starts at the same spot as Demon, but for the real Baal, Demon starts slightly before it.

[MongoJerry]

GUNTER: COWS



Sixteen people, 9.41% of those who voted on diabloii.net, said that Gunter would die in the Secret Cow Level. Was I worried?



Puh-lease! Gunter was made for the cow level! How can the cows do anything to Gunter when they all fight melee and when all except the bosses can be stunned?

(Yep, that's an undead crown. Who says that magic finding is dead in the cow level?)



Maybe this Extra Strong Physical Immune boss will show Gunter a thing or two.



Nope.

[MongoJerry]

Sure, the occasional boss provided some excitement.



But the ending was always the same.



I made one pass along the inside perimeter wall of the cow level and then shifted to the outside wall. At first I was using a combination of War Cry and Firewall to kill cows, but then I realized that I could kill a lot faster if I simply spammed War Cry. Spamming War Cry let me kill entire groups of cows at once and let me kill normal cows 4-5 times faster than my merc.



Gunter leveled right before he found the Cow King's corral. I put the skill point in Howl and dropped a couple of stat points in dexterity and vitality.

Grizabella had a tough 45-minute fight against the Cow King. How would Gunter do against him?

[Obi2Kenobi]

Grizabella had a tough 45-minute fight against the Cow King.

When what really happened was...

I laid a book on my mouse button and watched for a while. Everything was going smoothly. I turned on the TV in the next room but paced back and forth between the rooms in order to keep an eye on the fight

:lol:

[MongoJerry]

When what really happened was...

Hey, I didn't say that I had a tough 45-minute fight. I said that Grizabella had a tough 45-minute fight. I mean you swing a sword for 45-minutes and see how sore you get! :lol: