Well, this is going to be a larger update – Aegea, the Impale/LF-Zon made Destroyer.
As usual I play her single pass, full clears. With my skill tree being passive skills and my only action skills being Impale, LF, Immolation Arrow and Magic Arrow I was presented few, but hard choices:
- LF is probably a safe bet even without any synergies, might lack some fire power in Hell without specialized equipment (hard to come by in single pass full clear).
- Immolation Arrow will probably be too weak without any synergies, but will make early game play faster
- Magic Arrow is … well, magic Arrow
- Impale…hmm…didn’t they add slows target to it and increase the damage in a recent patch?
So I decided to try Impale for boss fights/single monsters and LF for mobs and Valkyrie as a backup. That meant my merc had a lot of killing to do until around level 33, when LF and some points in Pierce started to reach potential. But I am used to that…back in the day I followed jiansonz’s advice and let the merc to EVERY killing blow to increase MF, but well, then I wouldn’t need any skills at all, would I? So I try to take a intermediate route and let him do the killing blow if it is convenient but else I don’t fret too much if I do the killing.
The usual single pass procedure started: Hire a Fire Rogue at level 8 (higher damage, higher reach than Cold Rogue), equip her and myself with a 3 x chipped emerald Long Bow and watch everything die. Put Topazes in Helms and Scale Mails, enjoy the higher MF.
Luckily, stair traps in Normal Act I aren't lethal yet...
Some early gambling (yeah, I thought "leather boots" meant "boots"...) gave me something shiny, too
And did you know that what worked in Diablo 1 with the Butcher also works in Diablo 2? Closed cell doors can be a life safer (the pack was extra strong).
And wow did Impale make the fight against Andariel easy...no problem at all, but no relevant loot either:
Act 2 greeted me warmly (I usually go after the Horadric Cube first before I do the sewers to cube some savage Polearms):
and mocked me with unusuable shields:
I upgraded my boots with these nice slippers
And what can I say? Even Duriel was tame, once he was impaled again and again:
Found some useful unique items, too: Nokozan Relic (Great for the future fight against Diablo!) and Hawkmail (CBF could be useful for my merc in some situations) as well as a +9 Res All Jewel. Once I hit level 30, LF and Valkyrie were added to my list of skills as well as Pierce. The damage of LF wasn't too impressive in Act III, but Impale once again made its appearance against Mephisto:
And afterwards against Izual. The only downside so far was, that I only had a Short Spear to use for a long time before I found a better weapon to use. But I mainly used Impale for the slow and LF for ... well, Lightning Blasts of course.
I decided to level Valkyrie to 8 (rare War Pike) so that she actually did noticeable damage while at the same time levelling LF and putting some points in Pierce.
Hellforge wasn't too spectacular
but I did find a giant Donut!
Against Diablo Impale was good, too. But even with 75% Fire and Lightning resist his lightning hose HURT...one close call, where a Full Rejuv saved me. I only noticed after Diablo that I am allowed to use Decoy as well...his loot was nothing to write home about though:
This picture reminded me of one of
the twelve days of Christmas tournament hosted by
@maxicek - you had to take a screenshot of 8 Act 5 barbs in one picture. I only managed 4, but by accident - makes me proud
(btw, I also managed to catch 4 Health potions being thrown around by Pindleskin in one screenshot:
What made me
happy on the other hand was this nice little rock and the result:
What else is there to say? Nothing too spectacular: Ancients were quite easy with a level 8 Valkyrie and Impale, the WSK was no problem thanks to LF and I used a late XP shrine for the last two boss waves in the throne room. Oh and if you didn't know: LF really owns all waves in Normal. The most dangerous were the stacked Hydras from wave 3, but nothing else even managed to threaten me or my merc.
Against Baal Impale shone once again (although I managed to break my rare Maiden Pike I found in late Act 5 and had to switch to my Short Spear). He only targeted me and never moved, never cloned and only once called tentacles. Without CB it took some time, but not one town trip was needed
I then went to the Moo Moo Farm and made the fastest burger you can imagine thanks to LF. No really noticeable finds though.
Skills look like this at the start of NM:
Valkyrie 8
Pierce 4
all passives 1
Impale 11
Lightning Fury 17
Itemwise I am still in MF mode:
Artisan's Great Helm of Nova Shield with 2 PTopazes (need to get that 3rd...)
3 os Breat Plate with 3 flawed topazes
Rare Sharkskin Belt (+38 Life, 28% LRes)
Magical Boots (see above: 33% MF, 39% LRes)
Magical Leather Gloves (24% MF)
2x Magical Ring (each 15% MF)
Magical Amulet (22% MF, 12% FRes)
Rhyme Bone Shield
Rare Short Spear (+1 Ama Skills, 24% ED, +8 MinDmg, 5% ML, 7% PRes)
Rare Maiden Pike on switch (+1 Javelin&Spear, 76% ED, +106 AR - yeah, really. No other mods...)
I have some nice options in charms, jewels, utility weapons (prevent monster heal Throwing Spear, another Throwing Spear with 1-167 lightning damage for single PI monsters), The Battlebranch, which could be nice once I am able to upgrade it, and a bunch of runes
Aegea, the Impale/LF Amazon, level 49, with Vikhyat, the BA Town Guard and a level 8 Valkyrie, NM Blood Moor next
Code:
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SP? D2R? Forum Name Character Name Class Level Post # Location Score
--- ---- ---------- -------------- ----- ----- ------ -------- -----
No Yes Vang RagerX Pal 85 3 Guardian 45
No Yes little birdy idunno Ass 52 22 Lut Gholein NM 18
Yes Yes Grisu Aegea Ama 49 23 NM Rogue Camp 18
Yes Yes Kruemelmonschda Erdbär Dru 28 16 Kurast Docks 6
Yes Yes skoolbus Slaybraham Bar 23 74 Far Oasis 3
Yes Yes Vildecor Steinar Pal 21 34 Sewers Level 2 3
No Yes ranagrande Arek Pal 20 70 Lut Gholein 3
? No Miron ? Nec ? 6 ? ?
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Departed Died against/in
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No Yes Sven F Urs Dru 42 39 Forgotten Tower NM 15
No No SirName RandoCarlissian Sor 21 14 Duriel 3
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