Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

[drekka]

Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

hey guys im currently a level 48 barbarian. And at the moment im doing act 3 in nightmare. And im really struggling. Im chewing down so many pots that i just need to buy and buy more and then i need to go back to normal mode to farm gold


And also the monsters seem to be owning me. I dont know if its just me or do i need to level up more?

 

[Hrus]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

A3 NM should be easy. Only Durance in the end of act 3 could be harder because of exploding dolls and those maulers with crushing blows. I guess that you are in the stage where you need to upgrade your gear. What do you use now? What is your skill placement? Do you have some life leech?
EDIT: What about your resistances? with Glooms and Fire lords, they really start to count in A3.

Maybe all you need is few more levels...

 

[drekka]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

My skill placements are from the guide found on this forum. http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164067. Im currently up to maxing BO. I dont think i have any life leech. Not sure how to get that. My resistances in nightmare mode are:
fire : 28
cold: 12
lightning 63
poison: 35

( with sheild and flail on my lightning goes to 75)

This is all the gear i use:
Gear:
weapon
Ghoul smasher 2 hand mace
Damage: 51-74
+1 increased barb skill
20 % increased attack speed
73% enchanced damage
30 attack rating
1-40 lightning damage
50 % damage to undead
1 socket

Peasant Crown War Hat
108 Defense
+1 to all skills
15% increased walk
100% enchanted defence
20 Vit
20 energy
Replen life +10

Amulet:

8 poison resist
22% MF

Chest:
Shadow pelt armor
365 Defence
+24% faster hit recovery
+56 % enchanced Defence
Lighning Resist 22
Magic damage reduced by 1
Attacker takes damage of 1

Hands:

Defence 15
25 % enchanced defence
2 Dex
Cold Resist 14
Lightning resist 20
13 % MF

Boots:

103 Defence

5 % chance to cast level 8 blace ( i find this awesome lol)
20 % increased walk
12-33 fire damage
146 % enchanced defence
15 defence
10 + to max fire resist
Fire resist 30
52 % extra gold from monsters
+2 Light Radius

Rings:
71 attack rating
magic damage reduced by 3
attacker takes damage by 3
24 % MF

Belt:
Defence 40
15 attack rating
10% enchanced defence
3 strength
38 life
7 stam
29 poison resist
1 light radius


Alternate weapons

1 hand Flail
2-56 damage
Very fast attack speed
20 % increased attack speed
52 % enchanted damage
1-20 cold damage
5% mana stolen per hit
slows target by 50 %
25 enchant defence
50 % damage to undead

Sheild:

112 defence
51% block
10 % inc chance of block
100% enchanced defence
+40 defence
10 strength
all resist +35
magic damage reduced by 3

So im not sure why i seem to be finding even some of the none dungeon monsters hard. I went from 300K gold to about 1 k just from ressing my merc all the time and buying potions over and over. I dont think it should be this bad i think something is wrong

 

[Tuhnu]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

What are your stat points? If you're following the guide I guess you're not putting anything into dexterity or energy but what I was thinking is: have you put most of your points into strength so far?

Battle Orders increase your life but you should make sure you put a few points into vitality everytime you level up, especially if you play the game yourself without any boosts. I made the mistake on my sorceress to start investing in vitality a bit late (too used to just getting boosted so no real need for vita in the lower levels) and things got a bit hard with the low health I had.

 

[drekka]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

ive been leveling my stat points like this

Strength +2
Dex + 1
Vit + 2

Sometimes

Strength: +2
Dex +2
Vit + 1

I have at the moment

Strength 135
Dex 99
Vit 106
Energy 30 ( no stat put into it, just natural and gear)

With BO i have 904 health and 117 mana

 

[Tuhnu]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

Ok well the problem can't be your health if I can survive with 316 in A3 nightmare. Then again, I don't need to get within melee range to do damage.

How fast are you killing the monsters? Obviously the faster you kill your enemies, the less you will lose health, so try a weapon with higher damage if possible.

 

[firebrandd]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

Your problem is definitely your lack of life leech gear. Toss your current rings and find blues with life leech or a cathan's seal. Also the point of an IK barb is not having to put any points into dexterity...i would stop putting points into it immediately because you have more than enough. I know it seems like you arent hitting the monsters enough but you dont need more attack rating, just use a skill like Battle Cry to decrease their defense and you will hit more often.

 

[drekka]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

what exactly is life leech gear?

Like give me an example of one? WHat it says on it?

Any of you guys know where i can could some?

 

[Brutass]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

You can get life Leech (LL) from almost any item, i.e. gloves, weapon, helm, rings, amulet, etc. The item will say for example "5% life stolen per hit", so each time you hit a monster you get 5% life back. You will see your life globe go up each time you hit something. You can also get LL of 7% from Amn runes, so if you have trouble finding LL on a weapon, simply socket it and throw in a Amn rune. LL is also essential for your merc, so the same applies to him. For a Barb the best merc in my opinion is a act 2 NM merc, either defensive to slow down enemies or offensive to increase your damage

 

[Brutass]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

Oh, another thing, in an emergency try using howl if you get swamped by monsters. This will have them running in all directions away from you and give you valuable time to re-group.

 

[Tuhnu]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

A little note about life steal: the amount of life stolen is determined by the amount of damage you deal. Having 5% life steal does not mean that you'll get 5% of your max life back from each hit, but 5% of the damage you did. At least that's how I understood it and it sounds ok to me. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Hrus]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

Tuhnu is right. And you really need that life leech for comfort play - both you and your merc...

 

[firebrandd]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

To answer your previous question, the item will actually say "X% life stolen per hit" Cathan's seal (set ring) is a good lowbie item that you should have no problem finding and it has 6% life steal. Also i think you only steal the percentage of physical dmg you do, not the total shown on your character sheet.

 

[Aien]

Re: Act 3 nightmare hard or is it just me?

I didn't get a clear picture of what's killing you, but the toughest things in A3 are typically the gloams and firebreathing shamans. I know for me at least, the shaman fire breath would drop me like a bad habit, and I see your fire resist is a bit low, so that might be part of what's causing you trouble.

If these are what's killing you, you may want to try some hit and run tactics -- run up and back, score a couple hits, duck back and potion, etc. Try and draw a gloam or two away from its pack so you're not fighting multiples at the same time. Good tactics can help survivability quite a bit, and in A3 good fighting tactics come into play a bit more due to the sheer number of baddies that can surround you quickly. I'm not saying this pertains to you, but there's often a mindset that if you can't run into a huge pack and come out alive, then there's something wrong with your character, when in fact there's nothing wrong with running in and out and trying to peel a few away at a time.