Finally! HC finished!

S

SiTro

Diabloii.Net Member
Finally! HC finished!

I did it! Sometime back I had a fishymancer in the HC ladder who died before his time. Something about a devilkin he didn't spot stabbing him to death while his minions took down the NM Smith I believe. So a few weeks ago I decided to try and rebuild him and take him all the way this time... in Classic.

As of this morning, Diablo is dead. Long live the King! Here he is:

King Kong

Age: 37 days (Start: 2nd August, End: 8th September)
Song playing on Diablo's death: The Offspring - Gone Away

Stats - base stats in brackets

Level: 67

Strength: 85 (80)
Dexterity: 30 (25)
Vitality: 265 (265)
Energy: 50 (50)

Life: 729
Mana: 207

Skills

Raise Skeleton: 20
Skeletal Mastery: 20
Revives: 3
All other Summoning skills: 1

Teeth:1
Corpse Explosion: 19

All curses except Life Tap and Lower Resist: 1

Skills were boosted by a necro wand giving +2 to necro skills. That's all. :grin:

Gear was made up of Tearhaunch, Duskdeep and Stormguild, complemented by assorted rares and blue items.

---Stat stuff over---

Quite a fun character, I'd learnt from the first edition I couldn't easily sit back and watch, so I was always focussing attention between my character and his minions. Battle tactics were pretty much to stand back and amp, CE as necessary.

He was played completely without ATMA, muling nothing off regardless of whether it would be used on him or not. So I saw a fair few new uniques (Manald Heal, Nagelring, Mahim-Oak Curio etc) that all got sold for varying amounts due to me not seeing much use for them at the time. Of course this was with me putting a focus on getting my resistances up as far as possible.

Bosses weren't a problem, was it due to the awesome combination of decrepify and the clay golem? Maybe, just maybe. Didn't save me from bad drops though, for example NM Duriel. Bummer, eh?

This was the first time any of my characters ever made it to Hell. Didn't do badly on the debut.

So what now? Well first off in the next few days I'm moving to Coventry to get ready for my second year of uni. I don't know how long it'll take to get internet up and running there, so you might notice an absence of my posts for a while. On the other hand, I won't have this as a distraction from D2. Psycho, jjscud, I'm currently competing in tourneys of yours, and while I'm gone consider me carrying on with those characters. They both end at the end of this month (unless the Three Monsters is extended), so at the very least I'll try and get a few updates in closer to the time. Pgems for the UGT will also be found and sent in at some point as well.

Aside from those tourney characters I have a few ideas for my next few builds, so hopefully I'll have more to say on those when I return.
 
Thyiad

Thyiad

Moderator Single Player, D2 Assassin, Barbarian
Well done and congratulations on the Classic Guardian. Bad luck and commiserations on moving to Coventry.
 
Skinny

Skinny

Banned
Wow congratz, I always thought that summoners in Classic were screwed because your army & merc didn't transfer to the next act so you had trouble getting the first corpse down. Was that a problem?
 
S

SiTro

Diabloii.Net Member
@Thyiad: Classic Guardian? Are you saying that as an expansion junkie or because you don't want to revel in the cheesy name? And about Coventry... it was a choice between living in Cov, Kenilworth or Leamington Spa really, and there's a few things I prefer about Coventry. :tongue:

@herobomberman: 37 days? It was worth it, by all accounts.

@Skinny: I noticed the skeletons not transferring with me in Act 4 Normal. Probably because this was the point where I needed them most. So I went back to Act 1, farmed a few Fallen corpses, and had a nasty shock when I returned to Act 4 and they didn't follow me. From that point Act 4 was in the back of my mind as I was playing, trying to work out an effective solution. The other three chapters are fine for the most part, since you can hire a merc, use a golem and curse a bit alongside them. Golem on it's own is a pain.

Got lucky in normal, the golem was usually able to get the first kill down with some help from Amp. damage. I did use the Izual reward to help me along the AI curses skill tree however, this was when I put those points in. Attract + golem was useful from Act 4 Normal up until Act 2 Hell. This was a major stumbling block. Attract seems to draw in monsters from quite a radius around, even if the cursing radius was tiny. At least, that's how it worked for me. And Hell Act 2 was just about the point where the swarm of monsters would overwhelm the mercenary and golem once Attract wore off.

With this in mind I used my next skill point to put a point in Iron Maiden. this combined with the golem and a bit of luck would normally get my first corpse down. A mercenary helped, but even in Act 4 this approach worked for me. The trick is finding the right monster to cast it on. Cliff Lurkers, Doom Casters were good, and Flesh Spawners could occasionally be used since the Flesh Beasts are weaklings too. The Outer Steppes monsters I didn't like to see spawn were Corpse Eaters (too much life, I'm racing them to get to the sorpse), Doom Knights (I'm not sure how much of their damage is physical, if any, and they also killed my starter minions quick) and Venom Lords (too much life, also decent fighters).

Basically, it is harder to start off in Classic, but it's not so bad that it can't be done at all. I missed the Might merc though, was always wondering how much of a difference he could have made.
 
Milb

Milb

Diabloii.Net Member
Congrats on the 'King' :laugh:

I never knew they were called that, I think I'll have to make one of my own sometime just for the cheesy title :grin:
 
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