question on act2 nightmare -- having problem

question on act2 nightmare -- having problem

I can't seem to get the orifice open to put the staff of kings in to open Duriels chamber. I have completed the previous quests (except the horadic cube -- it won't "finish") and have the staff in my inventory. Is there some trick to it that I am missing (this is in nightmare btw)?

 

If you have the Staff completed and its name is in gold, not red, then you should be able to open the Tomb up - not sure what could be going wrong...

 

ahh - the name is in red -- what does that mean?

 

Talk with cain, drognan, and anyone else in act2 that you can think of. Also, were you given the cube, or did you go and take it from the chest yourself? That may be something that is affecting your ability to go ahead to act3.

EDIT: If the name is in red, it means it is from a different difficulty. You have to make a new staff in nightmare, you can't use the one from normal.

 

ahhh --- how do i get a cube to pop from the chest if i have one in my inventory? guess i will try to drop mine on the ground before opening the chest --- then if that works i will go get another staff and amulet to combine (if i can) --- thanks for the help

(btw -- the staff and amulet were from nightmare -- i just combined them in a normal cube)

 

You don't need new cube from nightmare, the one from normal works. I don't know what's the problem but the cube is not it.

 

Yea, the cube will pass through the difficulties, ignore my suggestion on that. I think you are going to have to remake the staff again, in nightmare. Perhaps you transmuted the staff while in normal? The fact that the cube is from normal difficulty should have no effect.

 

As he said the name was in red that means the staff is from a different dificulty. Thus it cannot be used in NM and must be remade in NM to it can be used. Thats pretty much a long story short. staff made bad make it good lol. :lol:

 

I ask myself what sense that makes. The only reason would be to prevent to bring the staff into a higher difficulty level, but that's impossible anyway, as it would disappear if you get the quest solved and later you won't be able to pick it up at all. Or do I miss something here ?

That reminds me of my 1.09 Meph soulstone which couldn't be crushed on the hellforge after 1.10 came out (I saved the HF quest in anticipation of the higher rune rewards). I had to get a new one from Meph

 

I think that when a party does act2, all the people get their own amu and staf. If you exit then, without finishing the q , you'll keep that staf. In 1.09 you could get the staf with a mule, transfer it to a char, and totally skip act 2. Well, thats what my friend says, i have never tested that :teeth:

 

In 1.09, it was a trick people used for rushing faster. Get the staff, stick it on a mule. Then when going to rush someone later, take it off the mule and give it to the person being rushed. This way you don't have to go through and get the staff and ammy and slow down the rush - you could just go straight to Duriel. Never did it myself, but that's what I've been told. And I do remember someone telling me before that you had to have a Normal staff for a Norm game, NM staff for NM game, etc.

Try talking to Cain to get the Cube quest to show as completed. That may fix your problem? 1.10 has a few requriements before moving on to a new quest that make you talk to people. I've never noticed that I had to talk to Deckerd, but then again, I always talk to him just to be safe. Drognan too.

 

But you can't bring the staff to a higher difficulty level which would be Blizzard's point of letting the staff getting red. Perhaps I'm wrong, but if I am, tell me how to achieve it...

Let's assume you are on nightmare and you want to bring the staff into hell.

Case 1 - the mule hasn't solved act 2 yet: In order to be able to proceed to hell, you have to solve act 2, of course. You have to be in the party who defeats Duriel. That would cause the staff to disappear even if you enter a game where the staff has already been inserted into the opening IIRC.

Case 2 - the mule has already solved act 2: Such a character cannot pick up the staff.

That means you can only bring a staff into a lower difficulty level which is pointless anyway IMO.

And in 1.09 you had a character for each difficulty level who has already put the stuff into the opening without finishing the quest, of course. The character's only purpose was to create games in that difficulty level (and write down which tomb to visit), so you never had to collect the staff again.

The 1.10 anti-rushing feature forces somebody who hasn't solved act 2 yet to be present in Duriel's chamber when he dies. But you cannot step through TPs in the harem and beyond without having solved the quest regarding the staff and talking to Jerhyn, so you have to run through the harem to the summoner and kill him to reach the Canyon of the Mage WP. You cannot even step back through your own TPs during that process IIRC. It's similar to Baal, but without a level requirement.

 

Thanks to all the suggestions here I was able to get past it. I dropped the staff and cube next to the stash and ran the three dungeons again for the pieces. After combining them it created a golden text staff. I think in hindsight what my problem was is that I entered a multi-player game in existence and ran the amulet dungeon. After popping the chest and grabbing the amulet I went to the maggot lair -- the chest had been popped already and several staves were laying on the ground --- I picked one of them up and used it to combine in my original cube. I imagine that the chest was popped prior to be entering the game and thus not triggering the flag?

Anyway -- thanks again for the help and I am not getting my butt spanked in hell. If anyone happens across this question (I will probably post in a different thread also) -- how the hell do I defend against archers in Hell? If I get a clump of 4 with a boss archer in there they tear me apart in seconds --- does high defense protect against archers or is it only a shield?

 

What kind of character are you playing?

 

Level 70 Hammerdin and level 71 Wind druid -- they can both make it in Hell pit -- but if I get a pack of arrow slingers I get owned quick --- block percentages are around 50-65% on the two of them. Does defense count when checking if you get hit by an arrow or is straight blocking?

 

If you have significant blocking, switch off running. If you are running, defense rating drops to 0 and blocking is reduced to one third. You would need more time to reach the archers, but you will get hit less in total. And try to corner the archers, so they can't run away anymore (respectively their lack of AI prevents them to do so.