"Baal, never doubt my skills."
/Conqueror Pastyface
That´s right folks, we have a character in Hell! :thumbsup:
As you all probably know by now, Pastyface is a skellimancer. I had not played one of those since v1.09 (where they were extremely weak and required much more work to play). Defensively, I must say that those skeletons are
way overpowered. It takes something out of the ordinary to kill more than just one here and there.
Even so, with his skill setup, I think Pastyface has some weaknesses when it comes to crowd control. He´s very dependant on the merc for killing speed (he does more damage than the skellies, plus holds the aura for them). The merc is usually well protected but when he´s not, Pasty´s in trouble. There was surprisingly little he could do in dangerous situations in the WSK, with Amp-casting succubi, Zealots en masse, Blizzards flying, etc. Often, I had barely registered that the merc was in trouble before it was too late, and another 38k gold down the drain. :tongue:
Pulling him back before he got into trouble worked sometimes, and that was really the only good tool I had. With
my necros, I usually have much better tools to turn a fight with: high-level Dim Vision, sturdy Bone Walls/Prisons and a 2000+ life golem. Pastyface was severely crippled in this regard. Level 1 DV is a joke, a silly 500 life golem that keels over every 15 seconds does NOT make me happy, and Terror and good movement can only do so much. Nightfish claims that level 1 Attract works wonders. Perhaps it does. However, Pasty had no points in it and I didn´t want to spend any money on a wand with important Hell-preparing gambling sessions just ahead of me.
Anyway, we made it without major danger. Most annyoning enemy was the Stone Skin Korlic. Unbreakable PI. Had to resort to putting Pasty himself in danger so I could apply OW, combined with using all my mana on an underdeveloped Bone skill. But it worked.
Now he has a better golem, plus (at least) one more durable tank if needed.
Queenie deserves a few sentences, too. She took care of the bulk of act 5 for me. I chose a slightly different approach for her. I went melee (NOT with spear or javelin, though), accompanied by a fire rogue and of course the mighty Valkyrie. Queenie´s high DEX led to maxed blocking with my main shield.
Very annoying first two floors in Nilly´s temple. First floor had Devilkins in vast numbers. Queenie (and I) began to HATE them with a passion. In the end, I resorted to luring them off from the Shamen, killed them and destroyed
every last one of their damn corpses (bloody expensive it was, too!).
Second floor had the extremely annyoing combo of maggots and Zealot/Heirophants. Holy crap! I think I needed over 3 hours on that floor...
Third floor was much more fun, but also more dangerous. Only Nightmare still, but an Evil Urn spawning a pack of Extra Fast Tomb Vipers can scare even the most experienced D2 veteran. Even the valk was in trouble against that pack! I think I recast her 7-8 times during that fight...
As you know, I do not do any runs, so most of your toolboxes are probably much better looking than mine. But I like what I have, and I have no regrets about the items I´ve let go. My toolbox currently holds 745 items (mostly gems I intend to reroll magical weapons with).
I will now be away with work for 3 days. Queenie and Pastyface have been sent to jgreg7.
I feel prepared for Hell. Do you?
