Cinderella, Softcore Firebolt Sorceress (1.14 lod)

[Boro]

D2 Act III
Session 1: Spider forest is mostly thorned hulks and fetishes

Nothing was too terrible, but it splits three ways early on. To the left was the Great Marsh, Further forward was the Spider Cavern and Waypoint, and to the right was the Flayer Jungle. Since the Great Marsh mostly involved fetishes and drowned carcasses, I went ahead and cleared that, end to end, then grabbed the Spider Forest WP and Khalim's Eye from Sszark's cave. 

The spider cavern was a tough going, with fire immune spiders necessitating a  retreat and microlooping in the entrance cave, and bats proving to be both dangerous, and other times harmless, if I could blow them up one by one as they hung on the ceiling.

Second session saw the Flayer Jungle approached.. straight from town, as the Spider Forest waypoint was too far from the crossroads, and THIS time the Great Marsh was full of gloams.

The Flayer Jungle was .. wall to wall with Flayers (Obviously). The Gidbinn & Flayer Dungeon village was hook shaped, with the dungeon tucked in the tip of the said hook. One death happened here because I accidentally clicked out of the game window, and it happened just as I was tempting an extra fast soul killer boss pack AND a champion pack together, trying to split them up or retreat back to the other side of the river.



Reclaiming my corpse required that I somehow separated the boss from the rest, portal parked him near the Flayer Dungeon (alcove). A portal shrine helped greatly in this. Then I had to slowly, painstakingly kill every single minion and champ, sometimes across the river, with my unpowered 500-600 damage firebolt and my slvl15 frozen orb. Ouch. In time I could lay claim to my equipment once again, and then, oh then there was REVENGE. The boss didn't last a second against my firebolts, let me tell you!

The Flayer Jungle waypoint was at the very end of the area, and upon grabbing the waypoint, I popped back down on the portal shrine, and thus began the Flayer Dungeon. The first level was just more of the same (Except with Lightning Bats), but the second level forced me back to the entrance area several times, as the first room after the first corridor was chock full of bosses. Teleport and Town Portal came in handy here! Even better WORSE, undead soul killers were also present on this level, so Thadar's heroic efforts to distract them were crucial to victory.



The third level had that weird setup, with four arms and four extra rooms in a vaguely Swastika pattern. Thankfully this time the enemy density was small, although the poison traps forced many trips to town - -25% poison resists were not the best for this kind of endeavor. Endugu himself was in such a room that was protected by such a trap, and even better, by his lightning enchanted status (that made him Lightning Immune too). Once his minions were dealt with, I tried swapping my gear around to get as much lightning resistance and +cold skills as I could. I grabbed the Brain, ignoring the shaman's infernos, then came back to deal with him once the brain was secured.



Eventually, the shaman fell dead (With several close calls thanks to his sparks), and I ONLY had to deal with the guy holding him, who was conveniently also called Witch Doctor Endugu, with the same abilities. Except he was just as fast as regular soul killers. Ouch... At least Frozen Orb could slow him down somewhat, and he died in the tail end of the same arm that his boss room was.

Now when I said the Waypoint was at the end of the Flayer Jungle, I meant it. There was ... ONE regular pack of flayers before the bend and stormtree, after exiting the WP alcove. Stormtree was, as usual, lured out and killed across the river, same with his minions, then I found the waypoint too close to the entrance, and that everything in Lower Kurast was fire immune. Well, nothing for it, it was time to head to the Bazaar, cutting a slow path through the Zakarumites, who took a handful of frozen orbs to kill each. Same with the bazaar, which seemed to be filled with even more of these fire immunes instead of their cold immune brethren.

That is where Cinderella ended her second session, and would continue from in hopes of getting a more favorable draw.

Session 3:
That luck came, with the cold immune Faithful replacing the fire immunes, and my pace picked up immensely.

Our so far intrepid heroine Jumped head first into the Ruined Temple (if it was a bad draw, I could restart the game without much/any progress lost), and finding it devoid of stairs traps (it was a right tilted T / Lambda layout), set upon the task of using firebolt to wake up the enemies in the main room one by one (Unfortunately, Thadar's running around did wake some more up, but using the choke point, Cindy could keep the entrance room from being overrun. Once nothing more came out, she cleared the side rooms (of the single vampire that hid in a corner, poor fellow), and then began a counter-clockwise sweep of the main room.

Overall, only the fire immune spider magi posed any sort of threat, mostly because of their poison (I had to pull Thadar back to heal in town), before I hit Sarina's group. Now, she was Lightning Enchanted, in addition to her already scary abilities, and thinking back I was extremely lucky to have had the whole level to string her out in. Eventually she got stuck in a corner next to the entry room's doorway, and I took advantage of this by sniping her through said doorway, preventing her sparks from reaching me and keeping her stunlocked.



Then the rest of the trek was through Upper Kurast filled with Lightning immunes (Zealots and green birds), easy ride, easily found Waypoint next to the causeway, although the sextons/cantors/zakarum priests hit hard with their elemental attacks and my low resists, so it was very very lively.

More zealots and more priests and more vampires in Travincal, and once I finished the first group off, I knew I wouldn't want to go through here again. Oh well, time to see if I can handle the council then. Geleb was the first to greet me, and after killing off a minion, I brought him back to almost the kurast bazaar waypoint for a nice portal park, because his double immunity and speed was too much for me. It's good I didn't leave him for last, because I needed the cleared up space for both retreat room, and portal parking purposes.

The rest of the council died near the center plateau, after much frozen orbing since they were mostly fire immune. Ismail was thankfully susceptible to frozen orbs, as Toorc was to stun from Telekinesis. Now, Flail in hand I had to get the heart, ugh. I hated the sewers, as the session was starting to get long already.

Oh well, nothing to it, time to get through to the waypoint, jump down to the sewers, go through the Horadrim Ancients and Horrors, Gloombats and co. Near the end of it (I swear I cleared most of the place, I went the wrong way as usual), I was trying to separate some bats from the horrors, rounded a pillar, got sandwiched, and the sorcie scream sung out the fifth time in hell.



Corpse recovery was thankfully easy, and the Heart didn't take much more effort to get once Riftwing's group was eliminated.

Flail assembled, I set down to the durance, and started traversing the edges. There are two benefits of this approach: For one you can only wake up half of the enemies whenever you advance a step, and for two it was the fastest way to get to the stairs down. Once going a fair way to the left without success, I returned to the entrance, as I didn't want to repeat the Sewers experience, with un-chillable undead stygian dolls (Thadar once again proved he was worth his weight in gold. And that was a lot of gold because of his resurrecting fees, as the death explosions could take about 60% of my life! On normal dolls, yikes!) and maulers running amok.

I almost lost the entryway once, when a doll boss group chased me up to Travincal. It took a daring teleport-chain to split them up and a full rejuv to keep Thadar tanking, but I got it done. Wow this game is getting harder as I'm moving through the acts of hell, and I'm using all the tricks in the book just to stay afloat!

Level 2 was more of the same, advancing room by room, tempting dolls by walking, and killing them FAST when they targeted Thadar, feeding him potions, pulling him out with teleport. He has almost become an extension of Cinderella at this point. The bosses were Cadaver mummies, but the waypoint was not found before level 3, and given the size of the level, I didn't want to do the place again, so down it was to Durance 3.

Entry room was only a few Blood Lords, dispatched with ease, however the Fanaticism Enchanted Bremm group swarmed through the doorway in force, and I had to set a TP on the other end of the room, as far from the stairs as I could.

While coming back from Travincal (Ouch, no waypoint!!!), I found the waypoint on Durance 2, but it was too far from the stairs to be of any use to me. It was Mephisto or Bust. I wouldn't back down unless I had to to save my corpse.

Back down at Durance 3 I immediately came under fire from a hydra, and a council member was charging me, so I teleported through the wall, and left the sparky group to sit in the entryway. With some incredibly flimsy ground gained, I went to work Wyand Voidbringer to gain some breathing room. He wasn't too threatening, being cold/fire enchanted and lightning/cold immune to boot.



I stayed clear of his death cold nova, but that was it. His room then became my portal room, then I killed the green magic resistant/cold enchanted/spectral hit vampire boss from across the moat, then the sparkly conviction aura Maffer. Thank goodness for the moat tricks, or I wouldn't have won this one, I fear.


Ouch... Thadar sure felt that one.

Once that was done, it was time for this Mostly-Hot babe to have a hot date with Mr. Cold Shot himself, and Thadar once again survived well enough on his own, although I did give him a potion or two just in case. It turned out, that with my teleporting back to let him heal up, I somehow managed to trap Mephisto across the moat, next to Maffers room. Ouch. Poor guy didn't know what to do from then on as we both worked him down from perfect safety. For a Lord of Hatred, he sure was stupid. Still, a victory is a victory, and Cinderella happily skipped through the portal to the Pandemonium Fortress (After selling the junk uberdrops).



But there was one more thing left to do. Act III was complete, but Bremm was going down! And he did, once I lured out and mugged his minions, and then shot him from across the moat. Business as usual in the shady Durance of Hate Level 3.

See you in act IV... with a very special change of style.

[Boro]

Act IV began with a very special thing for this report.

In act III I had to use all my skill to avoid being forced out of Durance 3, and felt that ... spark, if I may describe that adrenaline rush when a lot of progress is at stake, but instead of scaring me witless it spurs me on to consider every tactical option. Portals, Teleport, corners, stringing enemies out, even letting them block my only way in from level 2 just so I can try dealing with one of the hopefully easier bosses... and that relief when the tactic, no, gambit works out in the end. After that, plus thanks to watching a few people, I thought it would be a mistake not to stream, or at least video-record my runs.

So a stream act IV was.

For starters I fought Doom Casters, Doom Knights, and Flesh Spawners in the steppes. Nothing to highlight here, Doom knights took a lot of mana to kill, but with my frosty amulet, and my leaf staff, I had plenty. With good placement, as few as three orbs could do the trick. Doom Casters lost their fire resistance from nightmare, obviously because Blizzard needed lightning immune monsters, and the casters pulled the short straw, so instead of being dangerously tough, they died in two hits. Flesh Spawners were annoying too, but at /players 1 and 3000-3500 firebolt damage, I was doing more damage than half the rogue revival combined, with an amazingly good 9frame cast rate too! A fire/cold dual immune knight had to be dealt with by luring him to a chasm I teleported across, so that Thadar could handle him in peace.

I ended up clearing most of the Outer Steppes before finding the stairs, and this came in handy once I entered the plains, where I found... Corpulents, Casters, knights. More of the same, more of the same. The welcoming committee was a knight boss, who would have been an absolute pain to deal with if I hadn't deal with his dual immune friend before.

A bit later on, I found Izzy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQRYFVpYpe4

The rest of the plains felt relatively uneventful in hindsight. Orb for knights, firebolt for the rest. I had to clear most of the place out before finding the cuty entrance, so it did take a while, and I was worried if I could even get into the city, or I'd be forced out and have to retry again, and go through all three areas.

Luck shined on me though, as I found the waypoint right next to the entrance, and the draw was pretty friendly too! Corpse Spitters, Stranglers, and Damned. Nothing naturally fire immune! I spent clearing half the level, happy to catch a break, before finding it early enough to take a shot at the river.

The river.

Nothing was fire immune there either! Maggots and Stranglers made for rather easy, if sometimes tedious kills, but Urdars made me work for my money. 75% allres is not something to trifle with! It was a great luck that I drew an entrance where there is that "hook" shaped landmass behind the stairs you can teleport to/from and trap enemies, as the locals made me reconsider whether I had everything under control, multiple times. On the other hand, I could tempt them, and it helped because they were very fast, even without boss modifiers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Te8CTfIVQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhI1_5_g0is
The whole thing was a MASSIVE slog, one step forward, two steps back. One step forward, two steps back! The river itself took almost half of the entire two-hours session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6MTgH43AfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57FsmO69W6s



Eventually, she reached the waypoint, which was a HUGE relief, then Hephasto had to be dealt with. It was good there was the right kind of river segment to trap him in. Of course he wandered around, so instead of name-locking him, I kept shooting in the same position, after all a few shots would hit him anyways. He wandered off once, only to give me a through scare when I teleported after him and he came up from the bottom of my screen. Then at last he croaked his own, and I left for the night.



https://www.twitch.tv/videos/162129453 Link to the full video.

[Boro]

Stream for the next part - no mic, no camera.



For the next part, Chaos Sanctuary, I don't have much to say. The river segment was very doable. Strangelrs, blood maggots, and the occasional abyss knight boss pack with invisible shots (10:30) that almost killed me, but nothing immune. Firebolt worked nicely

At 18:48 I enter chaos sanctuary, and after the rather sparse welcoming committee, an entire triplet of boss packs, two OKs and one Venom Lord needed to be dispatched between the two lakes. This was done between 22:45 and 31:00. Cue the fourth boss at 39 minutes in: Double immune extra fast venom lord who couldn't be hurt even with lower resist and Thadar's lightning. Nothing much I could do about it but clear some place downriver, and portal park him. Another eleven minutes passed.

Yep, 50 minutes in and I haven't seen the pentagram yet.

Then, a third OK boss and some champion storm casters later, at the 57th minute mark I finally reached it!

The grand vizier's wing was comparatively easy to clear, and the group itself, well, it was not that much of a threat. Robbed of their fire resistance, and Vizier's immunity in order to make some token opposition to lightning sorceresses, who ignore it anyways with a mercenary/+infinity polearm, the Grand Vizier of Chaos was an anticlimax. kill at ~1h 4mins.

Infector and his minions took some time to reach, and the fast blue one was also conviction enchanted. He was not a problem once led out to his execution block on the River of Flame. Kill 1h 13mins, minions finished off at 1h 20mins.

Of the three, only Lord De Seis was easy to reach with relatively few guards to his seal. First the fanaticism enchanted doom knights had to be frosted, then the OK lord was just one of the many. A minion dropped a Ko rune, and the boss himself croaked at 1h 24 mins. Three minutes later the Lord of Terror followed him, after a very, very anticlimatic boss battle. It could have been scarier if I had no teleport, but I wouldn't be here either without that skill.

Uberdrop was another Tal Rasha death mask, some rares, and diablo's terror essence.

Highlights:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/161626953 - Diablo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wffU6I_bxEQ - De Seis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCAfwfxM78Q - Infector of Souls

Cinderella will see you in act V, and the final showdown.

[Boro]

Act V was ... a long time ago.

First off, Bloody Foothills was as bloody as one would expect. The really notable foes were again the Quill Rats, the melee folks (Enslaved) were cake in comparison. Especially tough was one might enchanted boss, who dug it's spiky back into the entrance of Doc Farren's narrow ledge. Ouch. And since I was not nearly full clearing, only a short path near the mountains, I had to clear out maneuvering room around him, then thin out the minions, then try futilely to engage him, then get scared witless upon taking a really nasty hit, despite my large life pool, and THEN rush past, into the unknown, hoping that he won't follow.

Doc Farren was easier for obvious reasons. And since no other notable bosses awaited past His Majesty the Spiky Lord, Shenk was toast, and that put an end to a fairly long slog through the foothills. But fret not! The fun only begins from now. Towers, Imps, Crush Beasts, Spear tossing cats (again)... This game hates me sometimes.

First enemies I see up in the frigid highlands are Eldritch's group. Simple as usual, except faster than regular enslaved. And now drum roll for the area's first monster roll: Slayers. Fire Immune, with their cold immune mini-shenks, who could turn them enraged or suicidal. Time to switch to my cold amulet. Still, jokes on them, as suicide minions take fewer frozen orbs to kill. Then once I am getting the hang of this odd version of oblivion and doom knights, come the fiery arrows raining on me: Burning Dead Archers. And what gives? They are not fire immune, nope. They are poison immune, fire resistant. That's good. I like resistances much better than immunities. That also meant that I wanted to switch back to my fire amulet, as it took 10-12 shots or so to knock one down. more for minions.

Progress was slow, and painful. There was a might aura popping up once. There was a blessed aim aura, again at the same place. Lots of stringing out was used, lots of dodging, lots of tense fighting, back and forth, like a waltz - of firebolts and fire arrows. In time, I learned to use Thadar as a meatshield. I also went back to town every once in a while. Sometimes to remove a curse from a Burning Dead Archer boss, other times just because something dropped. I didn't care. I brought back everything I could, for more potions, more gamble money, whatever. Freeing the barbarians somehow worked, sometimes by opening their cells and distracting the enemies long enough for them to hightail out of there. But in essence, that was Frigid Highlands. Slow, Unforgiving, and made every step of progress count.

In comparison, the Carvers in Arreat Plateau were a breath of fresh air, not spoiled by even the Burning Dead Mages (and fire immune Fire Boars) could really spoil the smell. Well, they tried. Three bosses or so spread out around a set of battlements had me working back and forth across the entire width of the level, picking off here and there from the opposition, and the shamans made sure I pay dearly for every little bit of progress, every single step forward, with many many minor retreats. A Double Immune (Fire/Cold) carver was fought along the plateau, but teleporting around and using charges of lower resist made quick work of it.

I was dreading the crystalline passage, but luck shined my way: Cave leapers (Cold Immune) and Bone Mages (Poison/Cold immune) were a recipe for victory. Not even the fire immune succubi bothered me much. Then I tripped an evil urn and met a succubus immune to fire and cold, also lightning enchanted, regenerating faster than Thadar could beat him down. Thadar died once, I almost died, nope, I got out of there and retreated to the glacial trail entrance.

Once I could work down the minions, I tried my luck with another urn, nope, another double immune, byebye! Then a third urn came my way. "oh, just fire immune, not a problem". Two blood star hits later, half of my life, and most of my mana orb plunges into emptiness and I rethink my life "Never trust me when I say it's not a problem: It's a problem." By this time I found the Frozen River entrance as well, guarded by bone mage champs, who were really not a problem. Yep. Assessing threats on the spot was not my strongest skill, and this led to many a cave leaper surprising me around a corner, much to anyone's amusement who watched me cry out as I turned around with them on my tail, and frantically scraping them off with firebolt knockbacks left and right in a round robin fashion. Looking back after nine months of grim dawn, D2's lack of inertia in movement let for a lot of ways you can apply player skill and tactics to a battle.

A bit later, the waypoint solidified my position in the caves, and I went down to get Anya. But first, I had to restock on scrolls, potions, and change my amulet to the Lightning Resist one I treasured for just this occasion. For the Frozen River was home to many a gloam, with whom the Rogue Revival team of old struggled greatly (maybe with the exception of Mr. Lightning Tank with his +20 Lightning Absorb)

Sure enough, I take two steps, and a quartet, maybe even quintet of gloam lightnings shoot back at me, I retaliate with firebolts, down a few gloams, the rest disperse, then Claw Vipers charge in and I'm retreating back to the stairs area and wraiths come rushing in too! Lots of firebolts at the chokepoint take out the wraiths and vipers focusing on Thadar, and I've almost lost the level there, but for the moment, the entrance was mine. I take a few tentative steps out, and Bone Brow himself comes in to do me in personally. His Majesty was Extra Fast Mana Burn Fire Enchanted, and charged Thadar into oblivion. I race back to my town portal, and mercifully he does not follow fast enough. I get Thadar back from Tyrael (Qual Kehk is too far away for me), and take another shot. First shooting some frozen orbs off-screeen takes out a gloam (sadly, but I cant afford to wake up the boss with firebolts), then two steps out, a viper minion comes charging in, and we mug him in the entrance. Hot on his tail the boss himself with another minion, and now it's down to Thadar, me and him, teleporting around in the sardine can, trying to get some edge over him...

This can't end well...

[Boro]

It did.

It locked itself into shooting bone spears at Thadar, which was dealing a pittance of damage compared to physical charges.

After this hairy situation, I realized that the draw, from now on, was very much blessed. No fire immunes, no cold immunes. This made getting a double immune to both fire and cold very unlikely, since they needed to roll both fire and cold enchanted, and only the claw vipers could do it.

Cinderella quickly established a portal parking spot after a gloam champion pack was dispersed, and set on to methodically clear everything, and haul everything of value back to town. One of those was a flawless diamond. And what gives? I already have two of those in stash. So I put it into Thadar's Sigon Shield. It was unlikely that I'd find anything better, and this let him round out the last two of his resists to fire. He was my personal go-to tank against bearable elemental dangers.

The River's layouts were, once past the initial task of establishing a foothold, making the claw vipers a lot easier. It's no surprise Blizzard added bone spears to them, as they could find themselves trapped on the other side with no obvious pathing for their AI. This I used against a lightning enchanted fellow, who would otherwise be a huge danger.



Gloams being Gloams, they could sometimes give me a scare, but they are also weak to firebolts. Gray Maim the Jagged deserves special attention. Invisible Lightning Enchanted Magic Resistant Extra Fast boss can pop up in anyone's face and his posse ate Thadar in an eyeblink. Embarrassing.



Seeing vipers, and knowing they can potentially push me out of the level if I'm not careful, I got the urge to go back to the entrance and check the other side of the river. And good thinking! Storm Call (Cursed, Spectral Hit, Stone Skin) was waiting for me there. It's a small miracle I didn't wake them up earlier.



From then on, it was the routine of back and forth, walking into at least one more gloam ambush in the fashion of Han Solo running into a group of storm troopers on the Death Star, some more champions, and a steady progress, till Frozenstein, who was easy enough to deal with. All in all it was a lucky run so far, going far beyond the plan of staying in the Arreat Plateau. And I didn't feel like stopping just yet. I had to see what the Glacial Trail had to offer, and maybe avoid re-clearing the Crystalline Passage the next time I came around.

Bone Warriors(Lightning/Poison immune), Bone Mages (Ice/Poison immune) were all that tried to stop me. No immunes, not much speed aside from an extra fast bone warrior pack. I grabbed the waypoint, and called it a day.

The next time I came down, it was Bone Warriors (yay), Wraiths (phys/poison, also yay), and I started looking for the unexplored regions in high spirits. Then a cold enchanted pit viper (poison/cold, umm yay?) boss pack rounds the corner, and I of course take a faceful of the cold nova. Even worse, because I tried running away from it, I got hit by it twice. Good thing I was on full health, otherwise I'd have had to do a corpse run.

Behind them was another cold enchanted viper bosspack, but they came in a single file, and got stunlocked in the corner. Behind that second group was Bonesaw Breaker's always-generated posse, and there a glitch happened while picking up loot, something invisible hit me for a good quarter of my health. It was not a reanimated horde, since they were all on the floor by then. My reward was a 7% fire resistance small charm, which I kept in my ever more full inventory.

Up on the Frozen Tundra, my old friends, the Cold Arrow shooting Bone Archers returned. It looked like they wanted a rematch after the last dance. I secretly hoped for them too, since they are poison immune. But their arrows weren't the only projectiles to greet me:

Blood Temptresses!


The good news: Immune to poison. The bad? Blood Stars. Thadar is within a sliver of health and I am fighting right on top of the Glacial Trail entrance, and this is the second time I ducked in to get a breather.




As usual, there were two boss packs in close proximity, and later on the third enemy revealed itself as the fire immune fire shooting imp type (Demon Rascal). The area was two steps forward, one back, jammed full of bosses, and lots of ranged back and forth, from which only the buildings offered some relief. Peek a boo, offscreen firebolt barrage sweeps, happy feet, teleporting, everything was employed. The Ancient's Way entrance was guarded by a particularly hardy champion rascal pack, but in the end Cinderella was able to pass through.


Yet another Han Solo moment.

This luck continued in the Ancient's Way, Afflicted, Abominables (risky), and Dark Lancers (Lighning Immune, scary fast, but frail). Another gambling spree turned up nothing, but the pace was brisk, without many scares until a might enchanted group of girls killed Thadar in ONE HIT.



Coming back the other way (and coughing up the fee to Tyrael) i could corner-stun her, (Aura enchanted Lightning Enchanted Mana Burn) and continue that way (sometimes chased back a good portion by the girls when they started racing me) to the waypoint.


I nearly full-cleared the way by the time I got to the summit. I made sure to get as many resistances as possible, and started drawing ancients. Extra strong, nope. Double immune? nope. Cursed? Nope. The whirlwind man got two passes due to a stun on me once during what seemed like a likely run, and I saved and exited then.



Later that night I tried more. I got close once, with only talic remaining, until he did one nasty pass on me which took me from full to zero. Another 20 minutes of fighting for nothing. Then I finally got it right, by almost 4am, and the ancients were defeated.

The next day the draw was even friendlier. Frozen Terrors, Bone Mages and Afflicted. Going to the summit was a breeze. Open a TP, take a deep breath, and the draw-athon was about to begin anew.

Vile Witches (Cold Immune succubi with Amp), Unholy Corpses (poison immune). Okay this can be a pain. Firebolt and cautious advance towards the west (northwest) lead the way, as I am still wary of what the third enemy type will be. Then they appear. Fire immune Soul Killers and their shamans



See my cursor? That's the realization hitting me. And it's even a boss pack. I start stashing found potions on the town's floor.

After dealing with the minions that followed me to the stairs, I decide to try the southern branch. Maybe I can bypass those and get an easier draw on the second level!

"And if wishes were horses, we'd all ride to paradise." - Sirian

Even better, it was both types. Blowdart and Melee soul killers. The entire posse. The south path was a  quick dead end, and I am slowly realizing the danger of being cursed and chased by the soul killers. My last chance to avoid that boss group is to the north (east), but that just leads me to an easier boss, and another dead end. I tried the other west (north-west) direction that opened up from the north, and there is a Vile Witch boss (not too terrible, Mana Burn, Stoneskin, Extra Strong). Avoiding that group I saw first sent me through every other boss on this level, only to come to face him.



Double Immune! Out come the Lower Resist charges, Teleport and Telekinesis, and of course Thadar's power.



And it turns out he was guarding the stairs down.



But what does level 2 hold?

Horadrim Ancients, so far so good. None of the burning dead or other skeleton minions to back them up, even the champ pack I meet start to melt. But suddenly...



See? One lightning is not like the other.

Black Souls. (We got Dark Souls in this game )

I run back up crying, but having spent too much time already in clearing the way on the first level, I am not yet ready to give up and try again.

It is a lot of back and forth, but at least there are no fire or cold immunes, as the third enemy group are Cadavers. (BUT they are undead and so a lot of potential fun.


Looking back at the footage I see myself starting to break down mentally. At least I had enough resist to keep it at -3% with the conviction aura on. Yet I continue, trying to get the waypoint.



ES, LE.

Murphy being my friend, i find the stairs down first, But upon meeting Oblivion/Doom knights, I go back to grab the portal. The portal is close enough to the stairs with teleport, so I am willing to take a shot at level 2.



Fighting is intense at the stairs, and there some demon imps too, so this is another level for frozen orb so far. Third enemies, once I cleaned up this mess, are Horror mages. Good. The level is playable, and I fight the stairs down to the southwest (west) direction in a rather short walk.



I blinked once and they were on me.

Cinderella won't play against that particular draw.

[Boro]

So, highlights from the redraws 

1: Soul killer boss pack waypoint camped me by rushing in.

2: Poison mage almost killed Thadar, but I made it to Level 3 despite black soul presence. Level 3 had soul killers I could manage, but then doom knights and frenzytaurs flooded the entrance.  

3: Black Soul bosspack waypoint camped me from afar.

4: Serpent Magi, Suicide minions and Cadavers on 2, 3 boss pack in this short distance... There is a FI/CI Cursed Holy Fire Lasher boss on level 3, fire immune soul killers, immune boars... I have to fight the boss while permamently cursed and only Thadar to whittle him down.

Round and Round we went... The third group was storm casters, a lucky break! With a little foothold and space to work with, I passed this level (but it wasn't easy!)

Throne take 2.

I tried dancing with them a little, and I could, to a degree, and after a back to town they dispersed somewhat.



Whew! By this point my hands were hurting. I took baby steps outside, still not knowing what the third monster type would be.



Doom knights and their oblivion masters.

Doom Knights, Oblivion Knights, Burning Souls, and Horadric Ancients. An all undead draw with resurrectors, but at least I had a foothold.

[Boro]

With a foothold comes space, and with space comes certainty. That much i learned during this hell run. While the horadrim ancients were troublesome, they could be outpaced as soon as I had the opportunity to string out my enemies. And every victory gave me more space to work with.

One particular enemy refused to yield, so he was left on the center of the right wing, robbing me of two endings and some looping/parking space come lister or ventar.

Flame Spell the Witch. He regenerated too fast.

He didn't stop me from setting foot for the first time in my life to Baal's throne in hell difficulty using a sorceress.


Colenzo required frozen orbs as usual.


Achmel had a trick up his sleeves.

Remember how the draw was all undead? See the bone spirit? Ouch.


Bartuc was routine



Ventar didn't want to come at first, but once his minions were off the leash, we had to loop around the stairs.

And finally, Lister himself. And all his minions.

They had to be looped one by one in the left wing, lower resists and frozen orbs both needed to take them down. it still took 20 minutes and lots of tempting.

All in all, some 40 minutes were taken up by the minions themselves.

Final-finally, it was only Baal and I.



...and his tentacles. Those things hurt! I stole all his gold in retaliation, but I doubt he minded.



His fire novas were the easiest to deal with, no interruptions and not much damage, letting me stack up that damage on him.

Sadly, he didn't cooperate all that much, and his clone, the tentacles, and the cold skill all took their toll on my rejuvenation supply.


I had only two left by the time he croaked.

The uberdrop was Kira's Guardia, and I just dinged level 83.



Cinderella sold the other, rare drops, dusted off her skirt, and walked off into the sunset. She conquered hell with a severely underpowered frozen orb, only broken out where fire immunes had to dealt with, otherwise relying purely on her firebolt. Firebolt exceeded my expectations by a lot, especially how easy it was to kit her out. A leaf, a lore or a decent circlet, a stealth, or smoke, but if a good unique comes along it is just pure gravy. A bunch of amulets and belts that look good can help in specific situations (lit resist, +3 cold skills, +2 fire skills amulets. more likely to find than some mythical uber +1 or +2 sorc rare amulet.). And even better you can always beef up meteor and actually use it!

[KingOfPain]

Congrats!

Any End Game screenies of stats, skills?

[Boro]

Something even better:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/2...erella.zip

She's been chilling on the RBD discord ever since that victory.

stats/skills:




gear of note:

[KingOfPain]

Firebolt with 5K dmg! That's some sweet +Firebolt adder to lvl 34!