Please welcome 1.09 Matriarch Eskarina_Smith.

Please welcome 1.09 Matriarch Eskarina_Smith.

Stats
Clicky!


Skills
10 Warmth
20 Meteor
5 Fire Mastery
20 Frozen Orb
5 Cold Mastery
1 Static Field
1 Teleport
1 in each of the prereqs.


Items (kind of untwinked since I didn't have any 1.09 items left before this char)
Lore Full Helm
Wraith Wing, rare amulet (23%MF, 29%FR, 37%LR...)
The Oculus
Smoke Mage Plate
Ancients' Pledge Kite Shield
Frosburn
Nagel Ring
Rare Belt (43 life, 24%FHR, 30%FR...)
Fortuitous Ring of the Apprentice
Sigon's Sabot
Various life, mana and resist charms


Mercenary
dead.


Best finds
Oculus (dropped by Mephisto in hell during the quest), Ravenclaw :smiley: , Azurewrath :smiley: and an Um rune from hell forge.


1.09 moments
Normal was much like 1.10+ with some minor differences but... *drumroll*… no mana potions form vendors. :banghead: No synergies also, which means that there’s no offensive skill to put points in at low level, which is rather frustrating.

Nightmare was easy but I have to admit there were quite some deaths. Even though monsters are much weaker and quite apathetic, they still hurt alot in some situations. LE + MS unique bosses, Blizzard from those healing creatures in act3 and our dear friend Duriel comes in mind.

Hell was a joke largely. It's very slow leveling in Nightmare compared to the crazy baalruns that 1.10+ has to offer, so I entered at level 49 without problems. Frustration - when realizing that there's a level cap at the ancients after beating them at level 55. "This quest cannot be completed my ***".

I have a question too. I understand that mercenaries levels up much more slowly then in 1.10+. Where is the best place(s) to level them and does it matter which level you hire them at?

/Kefir

 

congrats. still remember my 1.09 experence in hell untkinked as i didn't found ATMA.
normal merc have betther stats, aura, skills.
act v on each diff. is good to level your merc.
*cough* as i was the first to congratulate your work, you need to give me some runes or else your drop will be Hel from hellforges *cough*
/varnish

 

Thanks.

I don't know what you're talking about... *insert cheesy smile here*

 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

But back on topic. Man, I remember seeing some crazy sorceresses back in v1.09. My favorite was the block/DR/ES orb/met sorc that apparently the guide for has disappeared. She could stand in packs of cows and not get touched. Nice job.

crg

 

Hey man congratulations!

 

Merc's were always a real pain back then. I think leveling them then is about the same as leveling them now - stick to the places you were leveling best at their level. I can still rember endless Sewer, RoF and Bloody Foothill runs.

 

Thank you guys.

Cool, I want one of these. Another time though.

When thinking about it I'm not sure I even used mercs back then. I was fresh from one of the first versions of classic (without Lances) to LoD 1.09 so perhaps I didn't realize that they were at least a little better.

 

Using the old guides from the Darkness webpages about monster levels worked well for levelling mercs for me, but those webpages seem to be gone now. It seemed to make a bigger difference in 1.09 as to who actually got the kill, so a good way of speed-leveling a merc was to get a high-level enchant and let the merc kill monsters about his/her level in a players 8 game.

Congratulations on the 1.09 Ravenclaw find! That is a great twinking weapon which is endorsed by no less than Nightfish with his speedy Guardian efforts. Socketed with a Nef (or used with Cleglaw's gloves) on the cow level with Enchant is a great way of levelling characters quickly.

 

Thank you.