The Plains of Despair indeed

[TheMaverickPoet]

Allow me to share this online conversation I had with my friend concerning my gaming session last night:

The MaverickPoet: ok, so Im cruising through hell, gaining a level every half hour, its totally a breeze, right?
Deus Excalibur: yup
The MaverickPoet: Im playing act 4 with 6 other people in a game, no trouble
The MaverickPoet: then I get to the Plains of Despair.
The MaverickPoet: Im running around, casting Amp Damage as always, when out of nowhere, BAM dead
The MaverickPoet: Burning Souls
Deus Excalibur: lol
The MaverickPoet: so I go to retrieve my corpse
The MaverickPoet: BAM dead
The MaverickPoet: Burning Souls kill naked chars in one hit
Deus Excalibur: did you even see the lightning?
Deus Excalibur: or the enemies?
The MaverickPoet: lol, yeah, but about 5 streams at the same time
Deus Excalibur: lol
The MaverickPoet: so other people start coming to the plains of despair
The MaverickPoet: BAM dead BAM dead BAM dead
Deus Excalibur: this is why i got bone spirit, i just spray in random directions and hope to hit them
The MaverickPoet: literally, every person in the game died in the plains of despair and no one could retrieve their bodies
The MaverickPoet: wont help, trust me, wait till you get there, Ill explain in a sec
The MaverickPoet: I FINALLY get mine by spamming dim vision everywhere and running back and forth consuming full rejuvs
The MaverickPoet: so I get my corpse and gear, go back to act 1 to raise an army while everyone is still dying trying to get their corpses
Deus Excalibur: lol
The MaverickPoet: so I get my army, revives and everything, and come in like [CENSORED] prince arthur leading us to victory
Deus Excalibur: onward to victory!
The MaverickPoet: everyone gets their corpses, and we continue to advance into the Plains of Despair, destroying Burning Souls
The MaverickPoet: until, BAM
The MaverickPoet: dead again
Deus Excalibur: oh mang
The MaverickPoet: as soon as I died, everyone fell afterwards insanely fast, my spamming of +level 20 dim vision was all that was keeping everyone alive
The MaverickPoet: so I try to get my corpse again
The MaverickPoet: push forward, try again, fail, push forward, try again, fail, etc.
The MaverickPoet: long story short
The MaverickPoet: I have no more full rejuvs, and my over 1 million gold supply is completely depleted, I cant even rehire my merc
Deus Excalibur: damn
The MaverickPoet: by this time all the other 6 players had given up and left in frustration
The MaverickPoet: not me though
The MaverickPoet: I rejoined the game so my corpse spawned in town (I knew I could do this earlier, I was just too stubborn)
The MaverickPoet: I went and reraised my army, collecting objects to sell back at town and eventually got my merc and all my skellies
The MaverickPoet: then I went to the arcane sanctuary and got a bunch of kicka** revives
The MaverickPoet: I went back to the Plains of Despair and spammed dim vision everywhere, being as safe as possible
The MaverickPoet: it was really really slow going at first, but I swore to myself it would be a complete genocide and I would clear the entire level
Deus Excalibur: haha
The MaverickPoet: seriousely, I killed Izual without even attempting too, he was NOTHING compared to a single burning soul, they were so much of a bigger threat
The MaverickPoet: after over 2 hours of playing that single area I finally killed them all though
Deus Excalibur: nice
The MaverickPoet: the entire level, double checked, was completely clear of enemies
The MaverickPoet: [CENSORED] 6 other quitters, big babys
The MaverickPoet: well, it was certainly a learning experience
Deus Excalibur: im going to fear burning souls like the plague
The MaverickPoet: before I was always like "[CENSORED] dim vision, Ive never needed that"
The MaverickPoet: but luckily Ive been putting my points into it because I didnt have anything else to spend on and thats what people recommended

------------------------------------

Sorry for subjecting you to that tale, but this is just my way of saying a huge THANK YOU to the people who told me to put points into Dim Vision, because WOW did I underestimate it's importance.

[TheKbob]

I dont get the retelling of a telling to some one else. Could have just made it in easier to read paragraph format.

We all know the immense power of the summoner and dim vision.

We all know the annoying abilities of the glaoms, black souls, and such.

I am glad you lived to tell such tale.

~Kbob

[spuddogg]

Wait til you run into a pack of champion souls.
DV doesn't work on 'em.
Oh Joy!

[Necrochild313]

erm...champ souls...summon a golem behind them I 'spose, fire may work best because he'll attract them with Holy Fire, and let your skellies get to them and force them to do their pitiful melee attacks.

:scratch:

[JCX]

erm...champ souls...summon a golem behind them I 'spose, fire may work best because he'll attract them with Holy Fire, and let your skellies get to them and force them to do their pitiful melee attacks.

:scratch:

Yeah, also when there's a boss among regular ones. My solution is to drink juvies, decrip, run like a maniac and say a few prayers to various deities. It also helps if my merc is being smart that day. :lol:

[TCO]

75 resist [ or plus ] to lightning + thundergod's vigor belt + blackhorn's face

Dim Vision all of them and when the first dies.. Amp all then start CE chain reaction..

[Necrochild313]

It also helps if my merc is being smart that day. :lol:

And what day would that be. I wish I knew that day because I have not yet played diablo 2 then.

:rant:

TCO, where those idemz do work in saving yer arse, usually I don't have room in my stash for 'em and since I'm not HC it's not worth the trouble

:lol:

[JCX]

And what day would that be. I wish I knew that day because I have not yet played diablo 2 then.

:rant:



My merc's hat is socketed with Khalim's brain so he's slightly above average in smarts. :lol:

[TheMaverickPoet]

Haha, no way, can you really do that? I'm fairly sure you're kidding, but that would be sweet ;)

[Necrochild313]

My merc's hat is socketed with Khalim's brain so he's slightly above average in smarts. :lol:

That would make him want to become a flail.

:scratch:

I don't think thats good.

[Jebus]

good story

[Pyromancer88]

FLAIL MERC ATTACK!!! *merc starts beating his head against the burning soul and falls as he is consumed by a stream of lightning*

[SoulTaker]

dood i wanna socket some stuff with khalims body parts...people wouldnt know wut to think of it...unique l00k indeed...

[Xiamet]

I had a recent run-in with Black Souls myself, during an Act 3 questing sessions. I'm not looking forward to dealing with them again in the Anya Quest or killing Izzy...fun fun I tellya. But I have developed a couple of tactics that I'd like to share, as it may help others when dealing with these dreaded killers.

1) Use the terrain - I go into Assassin/stealth mode when it comes to Black Souls and their ilk...as I hop from obstacle to obstacle, casting DV here and there. usually my minions will out these creepers and give me a direction to cast the DV's, which stops their long range death rays.

2) Bone Spirit - I can't stress how much this skill helps when dealing with BS's...especially after a good DV is cast. Unless you encounter a massed group that are DV'd (in which case I'd go with Spear), I find that BS's tend to float around on their own, angling for a better shot I suppose. They fall pretty fast to some major spamming of Spirit, and Spirit tracks these critters while they're invisible.

3) Run, don't walk - I usually run from terrain to terrain feature, for safety and to get my minions where I need them to be...scouting ahead. I run, take shelter and my minions usually scout the general area ahead. Running with Minions sems to make their scouting ahead more active. Rinse and repeat to draw out the BS's.

4) Lastly...once an area is deemed safe, cast that TP...it makes body retrieval much easier.

Hope this helps,

-X

[Patsy]

Dear TheMaverickPoet,

An interesting retelling of a similar encounter I've had on my own in solo. :clap:

One curse that I've taken a shine to recently is 'Attract', especially if it's just your typical throng o' foes. Let one of THEIRS be on the spotlight for taking hits instead. Oh, it's immune to the attack? Even better. Keep them distracted just that much longer in their vain attempts to kill one of their own, also immune to lightning attacks. May buy you just enough time to reclaim your goodies.

The only problem is the curse length.

Thundergod's Vigor, anyone? Anyone? Beuller?

-Patsy
"Tactless, yet rude."