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Finished New Years Day, 2014.
I'll start by mentioning that this is my first untwinked Patriarch and my only Pat that isn't a Fishymancer. It is also my first Pat since I rejoined the SP and D2 community in November.
This Barb was serious fun to play. The challenge of playing untwinked in tandem with the rarely occurring yet game changing drops reminded me much of gambling (a personal love of mine). There were points where I would be nearly unable to proceed and would have to hit the drawing board, craft some gear, do some runs, or just straight suck it up and press on at painfully slow speeds, then I would hit a good drop and it would reenergize me to press forward.
Let's break down the barb. Keep in mind, the figures below reflect the one stat/skill reset I took midway through Hell Difficulty to ease some of the difficulties I was having. I adapted my stats and skills to the gear I found and used to finish. Also bear in mind that I saved my imbues/socket quests for later in case I decide to continue pushing this untwinked toon to greater heights.
Stats:
Skills:
Gear:
Merc:
Drops:
Order of business (starting in nightmare) went like this: Taunt towards the edge of the screen, draw in enemies and war cry then start frenzying. Use war cry, taunt, and howl, to generally manipulate the enemies into doing what I need them to do to die the quickest. Spam heal pots, keep full purps in reserve. After my merc's Bonehew dropped I was mainly a singer, keeping the enemies stunned and letting my merc do the work.
Mana burn enemies were annoying because if I let the War Cry stun timer lapse they would drop my mana bar and I would usually have to back out and double swing to mana leech until I could re-stun them. I kept my resists high through charms and gear so FE/LE weren't that big of a deal. I put a lot of emphasis on life leech to help offset the potions (this helped a lot with the ancients).
Attack rating was also a constant consideration. Eventually the whiffing sound became a constant nagging reminder of failure in my headset/ears. Almost all of my charms add some AR + whatever other useful stat.
Hrrrrrrrgh was a challenge to complete but he still moved at a decent pace. I will say that I wouldn't want to attempt doing this kind of character in a single pass/hardcore capacity as I did have quite a few deaths (atleast 20). Many deaths were due to mindless rushing at tedious points I grew tired of, so I won't say it absolutely can't be done. If I could make one remark about playing untwinked it is that you need some skill, a little luck, and a decent amount of adult beverages to help you keep your patience.
Thanks for reading, and if anyone has any questions please post below or send me a PM.
I'll start by mentioning that this is my first untwinked Patriarch and my only Pat that isn't a Fishymancer. It is also my first Pat since I rejoined the SP and D2 community in November.
This Barb was serious fun to play. The challenge of playing untwinked in tandem with the rarely occurring yet game changing drops reminded me much of gambling (a personal love of mine). There were points where I would be nearly unable to proceed and would have to hit the drawing board, craft some gear, do some runs, or just straight suck it up and press on at painfully slow speeds, then I would hit a good drop and it would reenergize me to press forward.
Let's break down the barb. Keep in mind, the figures below reflect the one stat/skill reset I took midway through Hell Difficulty to ease some of the difficulties I was having. I adapted my stats and skills to the gear I found and used to finish. Also bear in mind that I saved my imbues/socket quests for later in case I decide to continue pushing this untwinked toon to greater heights.
Code:
Name: Hrrrrrrrgh
Class: Barbarian
Experience: 1094128367
Level: 85
Code:
[B] Naked/Gear[/B]
Strength: 175/205
Dexterity: 110/156
Vitality: 225/225
Energy: 10/10
HP: 1083/1243
Mana: 94/234
Stamina: 376/376
Defense: 27/962
AR: 535/1293
Code:
9 Double Swing
20 Frenzy
20 Sword Mastery
8 Natural Resist
13 Battle Orders
16 War CryI relied on blood crafting for most of the game. Notable drops include the crown of thieves, the death cleaver, and the string of ears. Each of these drops happened at critical points in the game when it seemed like pressing forward was nigh impossible. I also made liberal use of the socketing recipes for white drops that I found. I relied heavily on the Honor and Passion runewords to give me decent damage output. When the Bonehew dropped for my merc in A3 Hell it couldn't have come at a better time. This gave me the ability to simply stun the enemies I faced with War Cry and allow my merc to do most of the killing.
Full gear:
Helm:
Weapons:
Kept a Passion and +2 Warcries on switch for buffing/PIs.
This Death Cleaver was a gift from the heavens and dropped in River of Flame Hell. It sped things up considerably for me.
Armor:
I was essentially forced to use this piece because it was the only Cannot Be Frozen item I found. I tried to run nightmare Andy for a few evenings to find a Ravenfrost but I eventually decided to press forward.
Amulet:
I know, +1 Sin skills. I had no luck finding +barb ammys with any decent rolls. Used this for mana leech, mana, and LR.
Rings:
Resists, AR, STR, never crafted anything any better.
Gloves:
Belt:
Boots:
Full gear:
Helm:
Kept a Passion and +2 Warcries on switch for buffing/PIs.
This Death Cleaver was a gift from the heavens and dropped in River of Flame Hell. It sped things up considerably for me.
I was essentially forced to use this piece because it was the only Cannot Be Frozen item I found. I tried to run nightmare Andy for a few evenings to find a Ravenfrost but I eventually decided to press forward.
Amulet:
I know, +1 Sin skills. I had no luck finding +barb ammys with any decent rolls. Used this for mana leech, mana, and LR.
Rings:
Resists, AR, STR, never crafted anything any better.
Gloves:
Belt:
Boots:
Merc:
I picked Fazel up the moment I hit A2 nightmare. We worked our way slowly but painfully through the rest of the game together. I believe Fazel's number one nemesis is NM/Hell Andariel. I would try to run her for drops and Fazel would die over and over to her poisons quicker than I could shift+click a full rejuv on him. The hydras from Hell High Council also gave him some trouble. Other than that Fazel was my steadfast companion throughout the game and should be recognized with full honors in our campaign against the minions of hell.
Merc Stats:
Merc Gear:
Code:
A2 Nightmare (Might) Merc
Strength: 186/192
Dexterity: 150/150
HP: 1767/1767
Defense: 1302/2577
AR: 1913/1913
Drops:
For all of Nightmare and early hell I relied on this, which I upgraded from normal to exceptional:
Hellforge: Gul(!)
Mal rune dropped in Hell A1 Catacombs level 2 or 3. Had an Um drop in one of the probably 20 AT runs I did (Duress or Crescent? I haven't used yet). Found a Lem and made Passion when my damage output got pitifully low in late NM/early Hell. Still using the passion for the +1 Berserk against PIs.
Also found a decent Gheed's:
Code:
[CENTER]Hrrrrrrrgh's Ripsaw
Zweihander
One Hand Damage: 37 - 84
Two Hand Damage: 57 - 121
Durability: 47 of 50
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 125
Required Dexterity: 94
Fingerprint: 0x50ff7df9
Item Level: 60
Version: Expansion 1.10+
98% Enhanced Damage
+15 to Maximum Damage
6% Mana stolen per hit
80% Chance of Open Wounds
Required Level +5
[/CENTER]Hellforge: Gul(!)
Mal rune dropped in Hell A1 Catacombs level 2 or 3. Had an Um drop in one of the probably 20 AT runs I did (Duress or Crescent? I haven't used yet). Found a Lem and made Passion when my damage output got pitifully low in late NM/early Hell. Still using the passion for the +1 Berserk against PIs.
Also found a decent Gheed's:
Gheed's Fortune
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xcafa90cb
Item Level: 76
Version: Expansion 1.10+
129% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 15%
39% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Grand Charm
Required Level: 62
Fingerprint: 0xcafa90cb
Item Level: 76
Version: Expansion 1.10+
129% Extra Gold from Monsters
Reduces all Vendor Prices 15%
39% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Order of business (starting in nightmare) went like this: Taunt towards the edge of the screen, draw in enemies and war cry then start frenzying. Use war cry, taunt, and howl, to generally manipulate the enemies into doing what I need them to do to die the quickest. Spam heal pots, keep full purps in reserve. After my merc's Bonehew dropped I was mainly a singer, keeping the enemies stunned and letting my merc do the work.
Mana burn enemies were annoying because if I let the War Cry stun timer lapse they would drop my mana bar and I would usually have to back out and double swing to mana leech until I could re-stun them. I kept my resists high through charms and gear so FE/LE weren't that big of a deal. I put a lot of emphasis on life leech to help offset the potions (this helped a lot with the ancients).
Attack rating was also a constant consideration. Eventually the whiffing sound became a constant nagging reminder of failure in my headset/ears. Almost all of my charms add some AR + whatever other useful stat.
Hrrrrrrrgh was a challenge to complete but he still moved at a decent pace. I will say that I wouldn't want to attempt doing this kind of character in a single pass/hardcore capacity as I did have quite a few deaths (atleast 20). Many deaths were due to mindless rushing at tedious points I grew tired of, so I won't say it absolutely can't be done. If I could make one remark about playing untwinked it is that you need some skill, a little luck, and a decent amount of adult beverages to help you keep your patience.
Thanks for reading, and if anyone has any questions please post below or send me a PM.