My D2 Necromancer Adventure (with pictures!)

I'm going to make a necromancer. It's the first character I ever played and probably the one I'm most familiar with. I'll be playing on USEast ladder hardcore, only using items I've found myself. I'll mostly be playing by myself as well, although there might be some guest appearances by other people. I also won't be wearing any hats that cover up my amazing hair, so that means circlet-type helms only.

I've decided to focus on Bone Spear as my main skill. Bone Spear is strong enough and flexible enough that I can use it through the whole game. Also, I think it looks pretty.

Stat points:
Strength enough to use most armor I'll find, probably around 110 or 125
Dexterity for max block, then the rest in Vitality
Energy = 0

Skill points:
20 Bone Spear (obviously)
1 Decrepify (maybe more if I don't find adequate +skills or FCR gear)
3 Revive (way too neat of a skill not to get)
1 Skeleton Mastery (probably around level 40 or so)
1 Summon Resist (probably around level 50)
1 in prerequisites
Everything else in Bone Spear synergies to jack up the damage

I won't be using Corpse Explosion. Why? It takes over any necromancer build. If you use CE, every other skill you use becomes support for it. In the early days of D2, this is what a necromancer build looked like:

1 point in Corpse Explosion
1 point in Amplify Damage

That's literally all you needed to do to win the game. You could pick whatever other skills you wanted and it didn't matter at all because Corpse Explosion was so overpowered.

When the game was patched in 1.03(i think?) to reduce the radius of Corpse Explosion, this is what a necromancer build looked like:

20 points in Corpse Explosion
1 point in Amplify Damage

That's still a viable necro build.

Before I began my adventure, I had to think of a heroic, manly name for my new character.


highly original

I arrived in the Rogue Encampment and took a short look at myself before setting out. I straightened my black vest, making sure it was properly showing off my awesome abs. After giving my ghostly white mullet a quick comb, I left town and began my adventure.


only a real man can pull off this look

Outside of town, I killed a fallen and made him my undead slave. I was an unstoppable force of destruction. The power of life and death was at my command!


YES! I AM A GOD!

I knew that I must have more minions. I searched for a more suitable prospect for reanimation.


i demand you serve me as my undead bovine slave!

Unfortunately, the cow resisted my dark magic and I slunk away, dejected. My feelings were only temporarily hurt, for I knew there would be many more opportunities for hot necromantic action. With new hope, I turned my gaze towards the Den of Evil. The creatures here were no match for my terrifying power.


hahaha my severe fighting spirit is undefeatable hahaha

I had a hard time finding my way to the Cold Plains. Diablo was using his demonic magics to hinder me in my quest.


clever...

The monsters here were more tightly packed than in the Blood Moor, but they were just as dead after encountering my sorcery and also kung fu.


my patented crushing elbow attack in action

After some more indiscriminate monster slaying, I encountered Bishibosh, Scourge of the Cold Plains.



Killing Bishibosh reunited me with one of my favorite items:


shiny!

With my shiny new Hsarus' buckler, I was well shielded from any type of attack. A swarm of killer bees could sting me and I wouldn't feel a thing. Unfortunately, we won't be testing that theory today.

My next task was to kill Blood Raven and get myself a mercenary. It was a battle of tempestuous dark magic, of zombies against skeletons, and of teeth against arrows.



After breaking the first wave of undead into pieces of various sizes and shapes, I focused my magic on Blood Raven and relied on collateral damage to remove the undead that remained. Teeth is actually pretty good at level 5, so it didn't take much to clear the graveyard and put an end to Blood Raven.


nerf teeth! op!

My new mercenary's name is Amplisa. I'll be showing her how to put the romance in necromancer.

^_^

Blood Raven was dead and I had been introduced to my new companion, the lovely Amplisa. It seemed that my mullet was popular with the ladies. In the Stony Field I was reunited with my old, lumpy friend Foofy.


clay golem is the best golem. no, shhhh, nope, you're wrong

Before I go any further, I would like to draw attention to my stylish sense of fashion. I'm wearing red tights trimmed with fur and a black vest that has the right shoulder decorated by a blood-colored skull. Also, yes, those are MY boots. No, you can't borrow them.

It was with this sort of high style that I entered the Underground Passage to the Dark Wood. The creatures here were helpless before the limitless power of my dental-based spellcraft.



With the power of the universe at my command, the Dark Wood was just as easy to clear as the Underground Passage. Abruptly I came to an obstacle, one that my vast magical power was helpless against.


curse you stones! I demand you move aside!

Using all my cunning and magic, I finally found a way past the barrier blocking my path. After facing such a trial, the brutish Treehead Woodfist was easy in comparison. The scroll he guarded was mine to take and I traveled back to the Stony Field with it to continue my quest.


secret technique: relentless ocular finger assault

Walk back to the Stony Field? WALK? HAH! I would bend the very essence of reality to take me there! (also known as waypoints)

The Cairn Stones that would open the portal to Tristram were currently occupied by Rakanishu, who holds the title for Most Newbies Killed because of his shocking disposition. A few waves of evil magic teeth turned Rakanishu's reign of terror into a memory.


awww Foofy is giving them a hug

Ignoring the pitiful corpses of the fallen, I commanded the portal to open with the horrifying power of my dark wizardry.


like the light of a thousand gloams

In Tristram, I had no trouble slaying the hordes of creatures and freeing Cain. To show his gratitude, he gave me a ring. I immediately sold it to Charsi for "adventuring money".

The next stop on my Heroic List of Things To Do was the tower of the Countess, hidden under the Black Marsh. I came in expecting some sort of maze or labyrinth, but was disappointed to find a small hallway with only a pair of tiny rooms.


actual size shown

There were surprisingly few goatmen in the tower. Instead, on every floor I was greeted by some form of Dark Archer boss or champion with cold damage. This was made even more difficult by the archers fleeing through narrow doors and passageways where I couldn't fit my spells.

Eventually I found my way to the bottom and spiked the Countess and her minions to the floor with several waves of teeth. Her treasure materialized out of thin air along with a refreshing light fog.


I was actually pleased when I saw this loot

The zombie head turned out to be useless, but I was happy to have my first Tir rune out of what i hoped were many. I would be needing a lot of mana to use Bone Spear and I would take it any way I could get it.

After crossing the Countess off my Heroic List of Things To Do, next on the list was Andariel. There were plenty of worthless monsters between me and her, and I would kill every single one that got in my way.


mwahahaha

On the way to the monastery, I found this uber leet charm, which I felt I had to share.


worth 40 sojs, imo

My battle with The Smith was somewhat of a joke. Several waves of teeth and a mana potion were all it took to make him cough up Charsi's hammer.


you'll make weapons from my bones? how about my TEETH?

I returned the hammer to Charsi and settled down for the night. I had to rest and gather my strength to prepare myself for facing the unfathomable horrors of The Jail.

The Jail is not my favorite area. I hate the bars and doorways that take up every inch of every room. The skeleton archers and mages can fire through the bars at me, and the ghosts can go right through them. While the skeletons have perfect aim, many of my attacks are deflected by the bars or other obstacles.

There's also a mean spirited creature living there named Pitspawn Fouldog. He sometimes preys on unprepared adventurers and his cold attacks can be deadly. Amplisa refused to fire her bow, so I had to kill Pitspawn and his minions without her.


heroically cowering behind barrels

I didn't want to stay in the Jail for very long, so I found my way to the exit as quickly as possible.


awww Foofy is a little camera shy

I'd like to take some time here to discuss how useless Amplisa is. She seems to constantly get stuck on walls and doorways. She also likes to walk back and forth or just stand still and not attack. Usually when I'm playing a melee-type character, a rogue mercenary will stand still and constantly fire. With a necromancer, I generally spend a lot of time repositioning myself and my minions to gain an advantage. When I do this, Amplisa shakes her head and refuses to fire. I can't wait to strip off her gear and dump her naked somewhere in the desert.

The exit to the Jail was next to the Cathedral, under which laid the catacombs where Andariel made her lair. Fearlessly, I kicked open the cathedral doors and unleashed my pearly white magic, killing everything inside.


did you expect some kind of joke here? I did too

Some of Pitspawn Fouldog's relatives had issues with me and were waiting at the bottom of the staircase to the Catacombs. After slogging through the Jail, I was in no mood to talk it out with them.


excessive violence? nonsense

Several minutes and several hundred acts of murder later, I was finally at the bottom of the Catacombs. Only a few feet of darkness separated her from me.


all this needs is a few random sawblades and it would be a super meat boy level

I had found a 2-socket Zombie Head with +2 Clay Golem, which I socketed with two chipped emeralds for the battle. After buying two Antidote Potions, (both for me, Amplisa can die for all I care), I was ready to take on Andariel.

I expected to find myself running around the chamber, summoning Clay Golems between myself and Andariel while trying to gain enough distance to cast Teeth and eventually win the battle. I hadn't even backed up to the door before my dentistry had destroyed her and left me with a useless pair of rare chain gloves. The entire battle took a total of two Clay Golems and 2 mana potions. Disappointing to say the least.


oh dear god that is NOT what I came here to do Andariel

Now that I was in Act 2, I had to say goodbye to an old companion. Not to Amplisa, because she doesn't deserve a goodbye, but to someone else.


i will always love you

Goodbye Hsarus' Iron Fist. I'll remember all the good times we've had together. I'm sure we'll meet again... someday... *sniff*

I was fresh off the boat to Act 2. The first thing on my Heroic List of Things To Do was find a new mercenary and equip him properly. Ilzan wasn't available, so I settled on Alhizeer, a Defiance mercenary. I equipped him with a lightning resist helm and armor and a socketed Trident filled with random garbage gems.


it took a little while for us to get acquainted

The next thing on my list was to replace some of my things with shiny new Act 2 gear. I bought a Strong Bone Shield of Deflecting and exchanged some of my miscellaneous gear for pieces with better resistances. This wasn't exactly necessary but it would make things easier.

Before heading out into the desert, I had to make a slight detour into the sewers to recover a certain Book of Skill. There were lots of ugly creatures here, but none of them were any sort of threat. The points I had in Bone Wall boosted my Bone Armor to around 100 HP and my resistances were all decent. If I did encounter something dangerous, I could expend all my mana in a flurry of Teeth and kill it.


all these colored lights mean I'm awesome

Eventually I found Radament, who was holding the Book of Skill. After killing all his minions with waves of teeth, our heroic trio (Alhizeer, Foofy, and myself) pushed Radament into the corner and beat the Book of Skill out of his cold, dead claws.



With Radament crossed off the Heroic List of Things To Do, it was time to search for the staff pieces to progress into Act 3. There was a small problem. The first piece of the staff was in the Maggot Lair. It is almost impossible to use Teeth in the Maggot Lair, so it was necessary for me to reach Level 18 and get Bone Spear before entering. The other option would be to learn to aim Teeth indoors by thinking "creatively" and that was... not going to happen.

To reach Level 18 by then, I would have to find and explore several of the ancient tombs hidden throughout the desert. Fortunately, I'm also an amateur tomb raider in my spare time.


skeletal remains outside the entrance... always a good sign

blah blah blah insert bad joke about angelina jolie here


heroic tomb running!

At some point I found this amulet. The mana regen on it is actually huge, but without a big mana pool it's mostly useless. It may come in handy later when I have more sources of mana. I also replaced my ruby armor with the wonderful Stealth runeword in a studded leather.


only slightly better than no amulet!

It didn't take very long to clear out the tombs with my OP Teeth spell and reach Level 18.


psh, i had this look wayyyy before sephiroth

Finally I could wield the power I had waited so long for! I used my respec here to move all of my skill points from Teeth to Bone Wall for the synergy to Bone Armor (150 HP!). It's not like I'll be using another respec, so I don't feel it's much of a waste.

Finally I had an attack that moved in a straight line! One of the joys of Bone Spear is that you can hit leapers multiple times if you aim correctly. The bugs in the Maggot Lair were much less crafty than leapers and had no chance.


TRUE POWER!

The first piece of the staff was mine. I had a sense that the easy part of my journey was over.

The first piece of the staff was in my possession. The second piece was in the possession of the Claw Vipers who lived in the Viper Temple. Due to some connection problems, I ended up slogging through the desert into the Lost City three times before I finally made it to the Viper Temple.


yes, my fighting spirit is very strong

I didn't have anything to worry about inside the temple. A 150 HP Bone Armor and 60% block were more than enough protection from the viper's Charge attacks.

When I reached the bottom floor where Fangskin guarded the staff piece, things became a bit more hectic. As I entered the room, I moved to the left to get a better view. A horde of zombies approached me from the left side of the altar. Fangskin and his minions sprinted in from the right, trapping me between them.

I was protected from physical attacks, but I was not protected from having my face ripped off by a lightning-wielding, insane snake creature. I tried to move upwards to put some distance between us, but what seemed like hundreds of pots and urns blocked the way. Frantically I kicked at the urns while Alhizeer tried to hold the ravenous vipers off. As soon as I had cleared some distance through the jars, I poured out all of my mana and unleashed a flurry of Bone Spears, destroying Fangskin and his friends.


fangskin? more like DEADskin! ... ...I apologize

Now that the full staff was mine, it was time to find Duriel. On the way through the Palace Cellar, I found one of the most amazingly useless items in the entire game.


I'm overflowing with joy

I might have actually considered using it because the dexterity and resists are nice, but I needed the 40 mana from my wand more. I had other methods of getting resists, such as this wonderful ring.


that's totally better than a soj, right?

Also in the Palace Cellar are Urdar, my favorite monsters in the game. The next time I come through here, they will become my undead slaves. For now, merely slaughtering them is acceptable.


yep, that's what a bone spear looks like up close

Arcane Sanctuary was another easy area with Bone Spear. The entire place consists of walkways only wide enough for two people at a time, or two goatmen. Straight, narrow walkways are always good for Bone Spear.


who knew sending a magical spike of bone through someone's chest would be so gory?

I didn't have time to take a picture of the Summoner. He died to a single Bone Spear. With him out of the way, I now knew the correct Tomb of Tal Rasha where Duriel was hiding. The tomb's symbol was a square, which I knew was on the left side of the canyon because I've played this game far too often.

Inside the tomb, I would face a monster that could crack my Bone Armor, avoid my resistances, and damage me directly through it all. I'm referring to the Mummies and their Unholy Bolt spell. Because there isn't such a thing as Unholy Resistance, I was taking around 20 damage every time one of these bolts hit me, which is a lot compared to the zero I normally take. I had to summon poor Foofy in the middle of a room full of skeletons to avoid burning through my health potions too quickly.

The mummies also have an annoying habit of shambling around to avoid my Bone Spears and waste my mana. When I tried to force them into melee combat, they would breathe poison gas. If an antidote potion wasn't present, I would be forced to Town Portal to avoid using 9 or 10 health potions fighting the outrageous amount of poison damage.


my curse seems to have backfired

After spending some time fighting past mummies, I had made it to Duriel's lair. The worst part of Duriel's attacks wasn't his physical damage, it was the cold damage that his Holy Freeze aura added to his Smite and normal attacks. To combat this, I purchased several Thawing potions for myself and Alhizeer. I planned to summon Foofy next to Duriel and feed Alhizeer potions while I blasted him with Bone Spears.



The battle didn't go according to my plan. Alhizeer died almost instantly. Foofy couldn't survive even a single blow. I used the Clay Golem's useful slowing ability to move much faster than Duriel. When I had gained enough distance, I would fire out Bone Spears and chip away some of his health. As Duriel got close, I would summon Foofy in front of him again and repeat the process. It wasn't exactly glorious, but in the end I was the only one alive.


spoiler alert: none of these items were useful

I forgot to do a gear report here, so I'll add one at the end of Act 3. Rest assured none of my items are very interesting if they weren't mentioned previously.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to Act 3. The dolls living in the Flayer Dungeon and Durance are very dangerous for most characters. I despise the layout of the Sewers and hunting through them for the tiny staircase down. Before I went to any of those places, I had to kill a few spiders.


delicious, delicious spider parts

While wandering through the jungle and murdering its inhabitants, I found a unique ring!


plz be soj plz be soj plz be soj

It turned out to be a Manald Heal and I wore it for the life and mana regen. I also found some rare chain gloves with Fire and Cold Resistance, putting my Fire Resistance far past the cap. My boots were my worst piece of gear (+13 Fire Resist), so I returned to town and started gambling boots for something better, hopefully with Lightning Resist.

One of the nice things about playing a Necromancer is I can ignore the Defense values for all of my items. The first thing I gambled were a pair of Chain boots with 10% FHR and 8% Lightning Resist, among other garbage mods. I had some gold saved up, so I kept going. After wasting 90% of my gold on trash, I gambled a pair of Boots and was extremely surprised to see Hotspurs in my inventory.



THE BEST CASTER BOOTS IN THE GAME. Yes, they are, don't argue with me. Why are they the best caster boots in the game? It's very simple: 15% TO MAX FIRE RESIST. This is AMAZING. Hotspurs bring your Max Fire Resist from 75% to 90%. They make you almost immune to fire damage. They also have +45% Fire Resist, which again is amazing. There are very few items with a resist higher than 40%, and this is one of them. They also have +15 Life, which is delicious icing on the awesome cake. I almost want to mule these off for my real sorceress. I don't feel worthy to wield the greatness of the Hotspurs.

I eventually decided to keep them and continue through the jungle. I met a few gloams, who I've heard have been neutered from their normal, terrifying selves into wussies. This news isn't going to keep me from aiming for a solid 75% Lightning Resist at all times.


eeeeeeeek

The Flayer Dungeon was my next tourist destination. I wasn't worried about dolls because I have Bone Armor and their explosion damage is all physical. I also had a healthy amount of %block if things got bad. I had no trouble whatsoever killing everything in my way and grabbing the random quest item I needed to get to Mephisto.


apparently I caught him with his air guitar

When I finally made it to Kurast, I took a slight detour into the Ruined Temple for a few free stat points. The enemies around here made me feel like I was shooting fish in a barrel.


SOULS, COME UNTO ME!

While I was apathetically murdering the Kurast locals, I found this lovely circlet, the first piece of headgear I had ever worn.


of course it had to have fire resist

The next thing on my Heroic List of Things To Do was kill the council. The council was a pushover, and with them dead I was free to enter the Durance of Hate. No, I'm not forgetting anything here. You must be mistaken. I'm not going to write about it and you can't make me.


that's why they call it a "boner"

I hit Level 24 here, which means I now have access to Decrepify, the most wonderful curse a necromancer has at his disposal. Decrepify slows monsters by 50% and stacks separately from other forms of slow. In many cases, it can be enough to lock monsters in hit recovery until they die. Against Diablo and Baal, Decrepify slows them so much that they stand in place doing almost nothing. I'm sure you can also imagine many other uses for a 50% slow. This is my standard curse and the one I'll be using almost exclusively.

The Durance of Hate was just as easy as the rest of Act 3. With 90% Fire Resist, I could ignore the Fire Walls and Meteors the vampire mages cast. The other enemies were all physical damage, which Bone Armor would absorb completely. I didn't even see a single Urdar.

When I reached Durance of Hate Level 3, I was forced to deal with Bremm Sparkfist. He had a Conviction Aura, lowering my resists and making him a dangerous enemy. While he was busy casting Hydras, I soaked him with a Decrepify and then pelted him with Bone Spears. I tried to stand in a way that avoided the gigantic charged bolts each Bone Spear pushed out of his body. I was far enough away that I could finish Bremm off with only a few minor burns.



Mephisto was next, and I wasn't even worried enough to check my potions. Decrepify would tame Mephisto while Alhizeer, Foofy, and my shield would block his freezing orb attack. As I charged in, I had a slight twinge of fear when Mephisto took out Foofy in one shot with the cold orb. I coated Mephisto with a Decrepify and then resummoned Foofy. Now that he was trapped, I pummeled Mephisto with a hundred Bone Spears, killing him. The loot he dropped was surprisingly worthless, an ugly mess of rare bows and magic leather.



Here's a list of my gear at the end of Act 3:
Helm: Plague Brow Rare Circlet (+1 Curses, 20% Faster Run/Walk, Fire Resist +13%, Magic Damage Reduced by 2)
Armor: Stealth Studded Leather (25% Faster Run/Walk, 25% Faster Cast Rate, 25% Faster Hit Recovery, +6 Dexterity, Regenerate Mana 15%, +15 Maximum Stamina, Poison Resist +30%, Magic Damage Reduced by 3) phew
Weapon: Dragon's Bone Wand of the Magus (20% Faster Cast Rate, +32 Mana)
Shield: Strong Bone Shield of Deflecting (60% Block)
Gloves: Bone Finger Rare Chain Gloves (5% Chance to cast level 3 Frost Nova when struck, +13% Enhanced Defense, Cold Resist +13%, Fire Resist +23%, 20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items)
Belt: Ocher Plated Belt (Lightning Resist +20%)
Boots: Hotspurs
Ring1: Manald Heal (7% Mana stolen per hit, +20 to Life, Replenish Life +5, Regenerate Mana 20%)
Ring2: Russet Ring of the Apprentice (10% Faster Cast Rate, Fire Resist +17%)
Amulet: Civerb's Icon


doing the victory dance with Foofy

It was time to cross Diablo and the rest of Act 4 off the list. Outside the Pandemonium Fortress, I could hear a sound I loathed like no other: The sound of leapers. Fortunately, I was well equipped to deal with their annoyance. Bone Armor and 90% Fire Resist allowed me to ignore leapers and every other foul creature of hell, with the exception of Abyss Knights.



I encountered gloams on the Plains of Despair, and after being nicked by a lightning bolt, I did something I hadn't done since I started playing many years ago. I stood in the middle of a pack of gloams. Ages ago, a barbarian wearing two Wisp Projectors, Thundergod's Vigor, and a Guardian Angel wouldn't stand in a pack of gloams. I could do it now with only 40 Lightning Resist and kill all of them without drinking a potion..



I think Izual is the most boring encounter in the game. He has too much health and none of his attacks do any kind of damage. It took around 20 mana potions to kill him and 0 health potions. Even Foofy survived the battle at half health.

In the River of Flame, the two monster types I encountered were maggots and hags. With Bone Spear, this wasn't a terrible monster set to find. Both monsters have relatively low health and no ranged attack. The piercing component of Bone Spear quickly cut through their summoned minions.

Hephasto The Armorer was just as easy as Izual, and also much quicker. Alhizeer was becoming a good tank and he held Hephasto in place for me while I sprayed Bone Spears everywhere.


Holy Shock and Spectral Hit? Too easy

The hellforge ended up dropping some useful gems for later. From a normal hellforge, this was probably the best I could do. The Ort Rune would also be excellent to socket for Lightning Resist.


only cool necromancers can do this

Everyone should feel a little nervous going into the Chaos Sanctuary. Oblivion Knights wield a variety of painful attacks and curses. Venom Lords are dominant in melee combat with their strong physical attack and fire breath. I felt I had the melee parts of Chaos Sanctuary under control, but that the Oblivion Knights would pose a problem. As I moved through the Chaos Sanctuary, I discovered that Bone Spear is actually an exceptional tool for killing Oblivion Knights. Bone Spear can snipe them while also harming the monsters in between. It didn't stop them from firing at me, but killing them quickly made the window of danger short.


playing peekaboo with an oblivion knight

Breaking the seals wasn't very hard. Grand Vizier is a joke for any character, even a fire sorc. De Seis and his minions died before they could get close. The Infector of Souls was the only guardian I had trouble with. Because of his speed, I didn't feel like risking my life trying to tank him. I fired a few shots and then opened a Town Portal, returning to the Chaos Sanctuary from the waypoint so that I would have enough room to finish him. When I made it back, the demons were spread out and it was easy to kill them.


go for a swim?

The ground shook at my feet as Diablo made his entrance. What a pathetic display of power, I thought. I would show him what it meant to be truly powerful.

Why wasn't I worried at all? Diablo is weak to Decrepify. Under its effect, he runs in place. His spells take ages to finish. On top of that, I was immune to fire damage. I could easily outrun his lightning breath, and even if it did hit me, Bone Armor and my Lightning Resist would protect me long enough to use a potion.


Foofy, that probably isn't a good place for you to stand

Alhizeer and Foofy died almost as soon as the battle started. My strategy was to keep Diablo consistently coated with a Decrepify and spam Bone Spears in between Decrepify casts. I briefly considered trying to raise Foofy, but realized it would be a waste of time and mana



Most of my time was spent dodging lightning breath. Whenever Diablo would try to move, I had time to summon Foofy to help out. The combined slow gave me enough time to convert a mana potion into Bone Spears and take a big chunk out of Diablo's life bar. After taking enough chunks out of him, Diablo crashed to the ground and I looted the shinies from his rapidly cooling corpse.


shiny!

The amulet was Cathan's, so I threw it in the garbage. The shield is the same Steelclash it always is, and I decided it was better than my bone shield. The rare crown turned out to be decent for Alhizeer, with some good poison resist and two beautiful sockets.


a most excellent crown

Harrogath and the icy lands of Act 5 are my next destination. I'm also looking forward to Level 30 and getting to play around with Revives.

The cold air of Harrogath made me question my choice of attire. In colder climates, it's never a good idea to wear only an unbuttoned vest. To put the freezing temperature out of my mind, I set off out of town to kill things. All the enemies in the Bloody Foothills have a physical attack and I have a recastable 200 HP physical damage shield. Yawn.


see that, bro? you're gonna be next

Shenk the Overseer was probably hard at work overseeing when I arrived on the scene. When I left, it would be hard to tell the puddle of goop that remained had ever been alive.


trying out the ol' curveball

My travel through boring country wasn't over yet. There was still plenty of drab greyish brown dirt ahead. In the Frigid Highlands, I got so bored that I decided to enter an ominous red portal decorated by skulls of various sizes.



It was much warmer inside the portal, but equally boring. I wandered around for a bit and was surprised to encounter no monsters. Eventually I found them, clustered far from the entrance.


where2find moster prz?

I even tried practicing my kung fu out on the local monsters to relieve my boredom.


aaaaaaaaatatatatatatatat

When I reached the Crystalline Passage, I was still bored. I decided to give Foofy a new look to liven things up.


i hear this look is popular with the kids nowadays

Iron Golem is without a doubt my favorite golem. In the old days, he had a lot more health. On one character, I remember he had so much health that the value actually looped around and my Iron Golem would die in one hit. Now with the changes to synergies, the Clay Golem is the clear winner. I still have a soft spot for the old Iron Golem and it has more health right now, so Foofy will be going metal for a while.


I bet that hurt

When I reached the Frozen River, I hoped that things would begin to get exciting. I was rescuing a beautiful barbarian woman from demonic yetis after all. How could that possibly be boring? I even kicked over every Evil Urn I saw on the way just to make sure.


times like these are why I became a necromancer

Frozenstein and his yeti minions were guarding the way to Anya. I slapped them with Decrepify to make sure Alhizeer and Foofy didn't get hurt and then mowed the dirty yetis down.


MANA BURN? GASP

After rescuing Anya and claiming a resistance scroll as my reward, I decided to do a little shopping. I tried gambling some new gloves but got nothing useful. The stores also had little to offer.


I will never be desperate enough to use those

While exploring the Frozen Tundra, a green amulet dropped! I was very surprised when I identified it and saw what it was.


there is no fucking way that dropped

At about this time, I also reached Level 30! I could finally use Revives! Unfortunately, Revives are terrible in Normal difficulty. Still, I could use them now!

Generally when using Revives, you want to pick the fastest melee types you can find. Slow monsters get lost easily and ranged monsters usually spend too much time moving instead of shooting. In Act 5, the obvious choice are Frenzytaurs. While moving through the Ancient's Way I spent some time watching with glee while my new pets smashed things.


this is exactly why I love revives

While I was in the Ancient's Way, I had to visit my old friend Snapchip Shatter in the Icy Cellar. We had a long standing relationship from when I used to fight him for fun with my barbarian. I wanted to show him how cool my Bone Spear was.


epic picture action!

After turning Snapchip Shatter into an icy puddle, it was time to fight the Ancients. What happened next? You'll have to find out in the next chapter because this is a cliffhanger ending! Gasp!


cliffhanger!

The battle with the Ancients was close. I wasn't too worried about it because this is Normal difficulty. Most of the damage would be absorbed by Alhizeer and my Bone Armor. My plan here was simple: Decrepify the Ancients to slow them if needed and kill them with Bone Spear. First I targeted Madawc because he annoys me with his stupid throwing axes.


you better run

With Madawc down, I could focus my attention on the two remaining Ancients. They clustered around Alhizeer and made easy targets for Bone Spear. Decrepify and healing potions kept Alhizeer alive while I dealt the necessary damage to win. I knew that the Ancients would be much more difficult the next time we met.


zombie ancients sound like an excellent plan

The Ancients had conceded that I was worthy to enter Mt. Arreat and stop Baal. First, there was a small matter I had to deal with. You may remember when I said Corpse Explosion wasn't allowed? There was a man who dared to break this sacred rule. I had to put a stop to his evil, necromancer to necromancer.


the dreaded zombie treasure chest in combat

Finding my way through the Halls of Pain was a time consuming task. The staircases wouldn't show up on my map until I was very close. It was a maze of dirty tunnels. However, the monsters here were easy to kill and I got to spend some more time with my revives.

The Halls of Vaught were where the dreaded Nihlathak made his lair. This area is home to a number of enemies that are excellent choices for revival in Nightmare/Hell difficulty. The Succubus enemies here are a flying type that move extremely fast. They have a hard to resist Magic component to their melee attack.

My undead succubus minions would be perfect to fight Nihlathak. They could get into combat quickly and prevent him from using his Corpse Explosion attack near me. Even if I was hit by it, I felt 90% Fire Resist and Bone Armor would protect me enough to make it non-lethal.


hah, your kung fu is weak

Although Nihlathak was wise to choose Corpse Explosion and Teleport as his skills, his choice of Arctic Blast for an attack skill was suboptimal, to put it nicely. I severely outranged him and it was easy to win the fight. My reward for defeating Nihlathak was to have one of my items personalized and branded with my heroic name. Of course there was only one choice.


the ever glorious hotspurs

Finally it was time to take down Baal. I was getting close to Nightmare difficulty and hopefully that would be a bit more of a challenge. On Worldstone Keep Level 1, I found a Skill Shrine and a different kind of Succubus that uses a ranged Magic-type attack. If you played Diablo 1, you would recognize it as the Blood Star spell. I had some fun watching my minions shower the monsters with concentrated magical destruction.


spock... set phasers... to... kill

I replaced my Succubi with Frenzytaurs when I reached the Throne of Destruction. I felt they would be better to keep Baal's generals in place while I killed them with Bone Spears.


fire photon torpedoes, heading one seven three mark five

Colenzo The Annihilator is the first boss in the series. He's a wuss on any difficulty.


card carrying wuss

Achmel the Cursed is the second boss. His poison attack does far too much damage. I replaced my minions with mummies during this fight. The next battle with Bartuc was very messy, but I had nothing to worry about. My minions absorbed the majority of his Lightning damage.


too...much... going on...

Ventar the Unholy was fourth in line to die. His minions are excellent candidates for revival. When it came time to face the dreaded Lister the Tormentor, I had a group of minions that were his equal in combat.



Lister isn't very difficult for a necromancer. He's only dangerous in melee range, and I refuse to fight him in melee. My Venom Lord revives had more than enough health to stand up to the Minions of Destruction. Their toughness gave me the ability to constantly use Bone Spear and quickly end the battle.

Lister was the last of Baal's generals. With his death it was finally time to square off against Baal himself. Baal was sure to be more difficult than anything I had faced before. He has far too much health, preventing me from ending the battle quickly. I had to make sure he was constantly under the influence of Decrepify or the battle would quickly go out of my control.



I still had two Venom Lords at the start of the battle. They would help, but I knew they wouldn't last the whole fight. My Bone Spear didn't have much of an effect on Baal's health. The key would be to keep Baal from using his deadly magic with Decrepify. While under its influence, Baal would swing his claws or try to cast a useless fire nova over the span of 5 seconds. When Decrepify ran out, Baal would spring into action and release ice waves or a mana draining fire attack. I was out of the way of most of Baal's spells, but occasionally I had to use a potion to recover or restore my mana from stray magic. I drank more than my share of mana potions throughout the battle.

The long, mana intensive process eventually rewarded me with victory. Baal barfed up his loot and it was finally time to go to Nightmare difficulty.


garbage

Here's a list of my gear going into Nightmare:
Helm: Plague Brow Rare Circlet (+1 Curses, 20% Faster Run/Walk, Fire Resist +13%, Magic Damage Reduced by 2)
Armor: Stealth Studded Leather (25% Faster Run/Walk, 25% Faster Cast Rate, 25% Faster Hit Recovery, +6 Dexterity, Regenerate Mana 15%, +15 Maximum Stamina, Poison Resist +30%, Magic Damage Reduced by 3) phew
Weapon: Dragon's Bone Wand of the Magus (20% Faster Cast Rate, +32 Mana)
Shield: Steelclash
Gloves: Bone Finger Rare Chain Gloves (5% Chance to cast level 3 Frost Nova when struck, +13% Enhanced Defense, Cold Resist +13%, Fire Resist +23%, 20% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items)
Belt: Spirit Harness Rare Plated Belt (5% Chance to cast Level 3 Frost Nova when struck, +6 to Life, Cold Resist +18%, LIghtning Resist +12%, Poison Resist +6%, Poison Length Reduced by 25%)
Boots: Hotspurs
Ring1: Coral Ring (Lightning Resist +27%)
Ring2: Russet Ring of the Apprentice (10% Faster Cast Rate, Fire Resist +17%)
Amulet: Civerb's Icon