Mastery Sorc Tourney

[jiansonz]

Re: Mastery Sorc Tourney

Apprehensive in Fangskin´s lair as usual, I slowly advanced and soon saw a snake boss - with the wrong colour! Whoa, another bosspack. An empty altar platform, and I didn´t think twice about getting up there. A few Bone Warriors soon walked up here. Jill has no way to make them stay dead, so Haseen was put to guarding duty (and for soaking up Unholy Bolts...) while Jill burned snakes. Lightning bolts hurt quite a bit when I don´t have my shield, so I needed one town trip for refilling.

Another FIPI boss, requiring Shocking treatment. Good thing I can sometimes stand behind the merc and still hit, even with a range 1 weapon.

The FW staff was used a lot in Arcane Sanctuary, against all those PI Specters. I noticed something peculiar. I have suspected it before, but now I am completely sure. When Specters are completely on top of each other and you lay some fire on the ground, they will shield each other from the flames. Only one of then take damage. When it dies, the next one will start to burn, and so on. This makes large packs exponentially more dangerous.

The Golden Chest of Joy in the third false tomb had a great treasure for me. Yay! Hello Pierre the Cryptic Axe.

What an improvement. That´s a good enough weapon for Haseem for the rest of the game, and a good option for a socket reward. It also frees up my Lem rune for other uses. Haseen is going to get a 'Treachery' armor for the next session. I do not care that it will be a Breast Plate...

I took on Duriel on /p3, and had brought my MF helm + armor. Static to half, then whacking with my 'Strength' Cutlass. Both of us were Enchanted and had cold resist boosted with potions. Jill is the better tank (max block) so she took most of the hits, but I often had to pull back to let healing potion do their work (sorcs are not good with red potions...). I think I needed about 10 town breaks for potion refills and merc resurrections. It only got dangerous once, but that was scary.
Killing blow was done while holding Jill´s Gull. Nothing interesting in the drop, though.

Sszark fight was quick and brutal, and left her another grailer. This was my last remaining green/gold armor/weapon among the normal grade base items. Yes, I´ve seen Sander´s Paragon, the Cow King´s stuff and all the TC3s (the three golden TC3 'rods' just once each, though). It´s a freaking wonder it has taken this long for a golden Grim Wand to drop...
(Geez, what a sweet necro item it is, btw!)

Sometimes irony plays a joke on you. In the very last corner of this floor, I found this.


Conqueror Jill the Mastery Sorceress and Haseen the Blessed Aim Guard, level 82, Hell Lower Kurast next

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Mastery Sorc Tourney

The Act III Temples were kind to us. No stairs trap involving bosses, and the one time Haseen was in real trouble (and got killed) - against a powerful double boss pack of Flesh Hunters in an Upper Kurast temple - I had already enough secured space to work with so I could separate them with Teleport.

Amazing find in Durance level 2 - a Vex rune. My second HR ever (the other was also a Vex). Looks useless for Jill, though (I do not have RWM in this version (1.11), so the options are not many). I thought about Heart of the Oak in a staff with good staffmods, but I have used up my Pul, so it probably won´t happen.

After Static-ing Mephisto down to half, I took him down with Fire Walls using the moat trick. Took a while, but I didn´t mind because it was so safe.

The FW staff was used a lot in Outer Steppes and River of Flame, to take down spawners.

Plains had Burnng Souls, so caution was needed. I lost control at one time, and was more or less stunlocked by lightning streams. With less luck on the damage rolls, I think Jill could have been dead by now.

I switched amulets for the Diablo fight, and put on The Rising Sun. Fire resist was only at 19%, but I figured the huge absorb would still make it safer than the other ammy, since Firestorm damage is dealt in many small chunks. I was right - Jill could bask in the flames and her life bulb wouldn´t move! And as you know with Hell Diablo, if you stand close to him the lightning attack won´t hit you. So the only thing that could damage Jill was the cold smackage attack, and she blocked that 75% of the time. Potions easily kept her safe.


'Strength' Cutlass at work

When Diablo was low on life, he switched targets and killed Haseen. Looks like the game takes the actual damage Crushing Blow will do into account, and once it got lower than Haseen´s damage output, he switched.

"Hey, I can barely hit you when he is dead. Let´s see if this makes you "like me" once more." <switched to Shocking Throwing Spear of Vileness>

"Ah, that´s better."

The drop.

Nice, I needed that armor for the alphabet unique list in the Svavenger Hunt. Hey, it is a pretty neat armor, with +skills, FHR and FCR. I decided to keep it in the stash for areas where I might need the help to get a Teleport off. My other gear gives no FCR at all, and I have just a little FHR on my belt.

In Act V, I think I am going to alternate armors a bit, between Que-Hegan´s, my Mechanic´s Field Plate of the Whale with rubies in it, and my newly made 'Wealth' (that I made with the Lem from the Hellforge).

I decided to gamble up most of my gold, looking for a better Coronet. Didn´t get one, so I had Larzuk socket my current one. Got only one socket, that I filled with a perfect ruby.


Conqueror Jill the Mastery Sorceress and Haseen the Blessed Aim Guard, level 83, Hell Bloody Foothills next

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Mastery Sorc Tourney

She made it all the way! Final report and Guardian thread here.


Conqueror Jill the Mastery Sorceress and Haseen the Blessed Aim Guard, level 85, Complete Game Clear