Bongo Fury
02-09-2004, 19:07
It's Limbo time again, or how low can you go.
After trying to push characters through 1.09 at the lowest possible level,
both untwinked (L6 @ Duriel) and twinked (L18 @ NM Ancients), I took on the
challenge of getting a low level character through Hell in 1.10. Single
player, HC, all quests must be done and all WPs collected.
Given the family tradition, I suppose it was inevitable that Limbo_III would
follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and set off to defeat
Baal at what some would think a ridiculously low level. However Limbo_III
was the rebellious sort who refused to follow the Barbarian tradition of his
ancestors. Rather he was one of those pasty faced Goth kids with a
fascination for death. So he embarked upon the quest as a Necromancer. And
given the wealth earned by the exploits of his forefathers he grew up in the
lap of luxury, always with the best schools and the best of creature
comforts. So he was able to embark on the quest to kill Hell Baal at L42,
with hand picked gear from the finest shops available. His kit included: Arm
of King Leoric, Vipermagi, Homunculous, String of Ears, Waterwalks, upped
Bloodfists, 2 SoJ's, and custom built Circlet and Amulet (key mod being
Teleport charges). This was complimented with 8 Summoning GC's and 10 Vita
SC's, most of the above with second mods. Skills were Maxed Skellies &
Mastery, and one in CG, BG, IG, GM, SR, Bone Armor, Amp, IM & DV. He was
accompanied by his trusty sidekicks, Emilio the BA merc (Hone w/ Amn, Shael
& IAS/RA jewel, Shaft w/ ISA/RA Jewel, Gaze w/ ISA/RA jewel) and a Beast
Iron Golem.
[I set off for the quest and made it as far as the Stoney Field when I
realized I was gaining levels far too fast, so manipulation of the '/players
x' function would be vital. And I wasn't being careful enough and I lost the
IG when I didn't wait for him and he got 'stuck' on a corner. So I
restarted, a bit wiser. Key tactics were walking to maintain blocking and
teleporting to keep the IG close.]
So the adventure began. The first order of business was to scout out the
terrain, finding the Den & Burial Ground, and getting the CP & SF WPs while
shuffling along at P8. I then switched to P1 and entered the Den. Thankfully
there was no stair trap, so I was able to build up an army of 16 Skellies
and 9 Mages. Not a lot of trouble clearing the Den, I took it slow so as to
not get swamped and no real problems were encountered. I leveled to 43 along
the way. I had left a TP at the entrance to the Burial Ground, so a quick
run back to town had me immediately ready to face Blood Raven. My Skellie
and her Skellies made it a bit tricky to see who was who, and BR kept
running around. But eventually I was able to teleport right beside her and
my horde deployed around her holding her in place. Along the way to the UP I
found the Stones, so I figured since my army was still up I'd wack
Rakinishu. I was playing at P8 at the time so it was tougher than it should
have been. His sparks took a heavy toll of my minions, and I leveled to 44
early on in the fight. This also meant that when my guys killed a stray
monster in the UP I made it to L45. I learned something new in rescuing
Cain. I freed him from his cage and immediately TP'd back to town. But the
old geezer never showed up in the Rogue camp. I had to go back to Tristram
and wait for him to make his TP before the quest would be completed. The
countess was really cheap, I guess she heard I was bypassing everything but
the quests and WP's, so she only dropped a Tir and Nef. The Smith had his
usual line 'I shall make weapons from your bones'. And I brought enough
bones for him to equip a small army. But he was only able to kill 2 Skellies
before keeling over. Made L46 during this fight. When I reached the Cats 4 I
teleported diagonally from the stairs into Andy's throneroom, and killed
enough Fallen to replenish my posse. Then it was teleport right on top of
her and it was over quickly. Overall, A1 was a breeze and I thought I had
started out at way too high a level.
When I reached Lut Gholein I still had a good sized army, so I immediately
went for Raddy. Ran through L1 & L2 (picking up the WP along the way) at P8,
then switched back to P1 for the fight on L3. Once again, it was a battle of
the Skellies, so seeing the good guys from the bad guys was a bit of a
problem. And Raddy was a teleporter too, so we were both popping all around
the room. Made L47 when he went down. The desert areas were a breeze. And
the Maggot Lair and CVT were simple with teleport. The first real scary part
was in the Palace 3 where I had a NDE. I got caught in a big group of
baddies and had problems with block and hit recoveries. Used up a whole belt
full of potions before I was able to get out of that one. Of course I had to
cover the whole AS before finding the Summoner on the fourth branch. Started
a new game, and switched to P1 when I got close to him. Built up my army and
a quick teleport onto his platform made for a quick fight. L48 came during
this fight. I was able to find my way to the socket room relatively quickly,
and Duriel was a pushover. By then I had Revive, so my army numbered 45 for
this fight. The big bug never had a chance.
Act 3 was no real problem. I made L49 recovering the Gidbin. The first real
fight was the High Council. But I made sure to hunt down all the Heirophants
nearby, so the actual battle went well. Though that did take a heavy toll of
my army, 4 Skellies and 8 Mages. I leveled to 50 here. Mephisto was a
typical run, TP across the moat and swamp him. Of course he dropped nada.
I scouted through A4, finding Izzy and Hetfatso's locations and the CotD and
RoF WPs. Then I started a new game to confront them. Izzy had spawner bugs
nearby, so raising my army was a snap. But Izzy had a Fanat boss pack with
him, and another boss who Amped us nearby. It was a time consuming battle,
as usual, but it never got threatening. Izzy was kind enough to drop a Gul
rune. Fatso turned up Might, Spec Hit, FE and LE, but I was able to isolate
him with bone walls and it was another controlled battle, making L51 when he
fell. Got nothing but disappointment from the Forge. Then it was time for
Diablo. I teleported across the paths and into the CS, stopping short of the
central area to switch back to P1. Then I ported to the pentagram and
blocked it off with BWs to build up my army. I did the Venom Lords first
since they usually wipe out my previous Skelly army with their Inferno. But
this time it wasn't too bad. Leveled to 52 doing Lord Disease. By the time I
made it to Diablo I had my full army of 45 waiting for him. Decrepify made
this another simple fight, Big D couldn't kill any of my minions. I made it
to L53 when he died.
So on to A5. Things got a lot tougher by this time. The monsters hit a lot
harder and my life seemed to go to a sliver more often than the rest of Hell
combined. I skipped Shenk on my way to the FH WP, since I only had a few
Skellies from the bodies along the way through the Bloody Foothills. It sure
would have been nice if I could have raised dead barbarians. Rescuing the
Barbs wasn't too bad. I'd teleport into the pen next to the door to let my
minions work on it, while I mingled with the Barbs to shield myself from the
crossfire. The most dangerous place turned out to be the Frozen River. It
seemed like Frozenstein was having a wookie convention around Anya since it
was packed nearly solid with furballs. It took me two trips to town to
refill my belt before I was able to talk to Anya the first time. And in
order to get back to her I had to lead off a lot of the baddies and park
them, very dangerous and I nearly bought the farm a few times. I easily used
50 full rejuves to rescue Anya. I then got the HoP WP, but saved Nilathuk
for last so that I could use Pindle's garden as a cheap source of Skellies.
I scouted out the rest of A5, getting all the WPs up to the Summit, then it
was time for battle. I raised a good many Skellies from Pindle, then went
and polished off Shenk (leveled to 54) to top off the Skellies and get a
full load of Revives. Then I immediately went back to my TP at the Summit
for the showdown with the Ancients. Korlic and Madwac were both FE, so I
gave them a wide berth. Didn't want to ruin the effort by succumbing to the
FE bug. It was probably the longest battle of the run, but the only
dangerous thing was that one of them was Holy Shock, so I had to drink the
occasional potion to keep myself and the merc topped off. I was only L54, so
I didn't officially get credit for the quest, so I couldn't enter the WK.
But I used an editor to give myself the WK2 WP, then backtracked to the
summit. I returned another time to finish up, and when I did the WK2 was
populated with Black Souls and Snakes. I barely survived a crossfire. So I
wimped out and started new games till a got a more friendly spawn. I ended
up covering almost the rest of the WK2 before I found the stairs down. But
WK3 was much better and I found those stairs quickly. As soon as I got down
I switched to P1, then teleported to the entrance of the Throne room. There
I walled things off and slowly built up my army. Clearing the throne was
easy enough and it was time for the minions. I went back to see Malah to
cure everyone's poison from Achmel just to be safe and so I didn't lose any
minions. I made level 55 around this time, and level 56 came during Lister's
pack. With 45 minions nothing was especially dangerous, though the Lister
pack took some time to vanquish, as usual. So then it was on to Baal. Three
quick teleports and I had him surrounded with minions, and he never had a
chance. Much quicker than even Lister's pack. I leveled to 57 when he puked
his guts out. Then all that remained was to deal with Nilathuk. I had
previously scouted out his level and knew right where to expect him. I came
in on the right side to his area and we got bogged down with his minions. I
thought I was giving them enough space, but a quick one, two CE had me down
to a sliver and half my minions were dead. Time for a hasty retreat and a
regroup. This time I teleported right down the left side and as soon as I
saw Nilathuk I ported right beside him. I backed away from him to get my
army deployed and to avoid any possible CEs, but before I could blink
Nilathuk was history. So there I stood a brand new level 57 Guardian.
Overall I found the effort easier than I expected. I finished up with 8
unspent skill points, and I never felt the need to change his gear as I
leveled up. My merc finished up at L46. I might give this another shot at a
lower level. The Homunculus and the Skiller charms were the only items I
used with that had a L42 requirement, and the Arm was next highest at L36.
Most all the rest of my gear was in the 29-32 level range. Starting in the
low 30's might prove too tough though since I won't have enough skills to
max my skellies out at the start, and have the golem and curses I would
need.
Regards-
Mark
Bongo-Fury
After trying to push characters through 1.09 at the lowest possible level,
both untwinked (L6 @ Duriel) and twinked (L18 @ NM Ancients), I took on the
challenge of getting a low level character through Hell in 1.10. Single
player, HC, all quests must be done and all WPs collected.
Given the family tradition, I suppose it was inevitable that Limbo_III would
follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and set off to defeat
Baal at what some would think a ridiculously low level. However Limbo_III
was the rebellious sort who refused to follow the Barbarian tradition of his
ancestors. Rather he was one of those pasty faced Goth kids with a
fascination for death. So he embarked upon the quest as a Necromancer. And
given the wealth earned by the exploits of his forefathers he grew up in the
lap of luxury, always with the best schools and the best of creature
comforts. So he was able to embark on the quest to kill Hell Baal at L42,
with hand picked gear from the finest shops available. His kit included: Arm
of King Leoric, Vipermagi, Homunculous, String of Ears, Waterwalks, upped
Bloodfists, 2 SoJ's, and custom built Circlet and Amulet (key mod being
Teleport charges). This was complimented with 8 Summoning GC's and 10 Vita
SC's, most of the above with second mods. Skills were Maxed Skellies &
Mastery, and one in CG, BG, IG, GM, SR, Bone Armor, Amp, IM & DV. He was
accompanied by his trusty sidekicks, Emilio the BA merc (Hone w/ Amn, Shael
& IAS/RA jewel, Shaft w/ ISA/RA Jewel, Gaze w/ ISA/RA jewel) and a Beast
Iron Golem.
[I set off for the quest and made it as far as the Stoney Field when I
realized I was gaining levels far too fast, so manipulation of the '/players
x' function would be vital. And I wasn't being careful enough and I lost the
IG when I didn't wait for him and he got 'stuck' on a corner. So I
restarted, a bit wiser. Key tactics were walking to maintain blocking and
teleporting to keep the IG close.]
So the adventure began. The first order of business was to scout out the
terrain, finding the Den & Burial Ground, and getting the CP & SF WPs while
shuffling along at P8. I then switched to P1 and entered the Den. Thankfully
there was no stair trap, so I was able to build up an army of 16 Skellies
and 9 Mages. Not a lot of trouble clearing the Den, I took it slow so as to
not get swamped and no real problems were encountered. I leveled to 43 along
the way. I had left a TP at the entrance to the Burial Ground, so a quick
run back to town had me immediately ready to face Blood Raven. My Skellie
and her Skellies made it a bit tricky to see who was who, and BR kept
running around. But eventually I was able to teleport right beside her and
my horde deployed around her holding her in place. Along the way to the UP I
found the Stones, so I figured since my army was still up I'd wack
Rakinishu. I was playing at P8 at the time so it was tougher than it should
have been. His sparks took a heavy toll of my minions, and I leveled to 44
early on in the fight. This also meant that when my guys killed a stray
monster in the UP I made it to L45. I learned something new in rescuing
Cain. I freed him from his cage and immediately TP'd back to town. But the
old geezer never showed up in the Rogue camp. I had to go back to Tristram
and wait for him to make his TP before the quest would be completed. The
countess was really cheap, I guess she heard I was bypassing everything but
the quests and WP's, so she only dropped a Tir and Nef. The Smith had his
usual line 'I shall make weapons from your bones'. And I brought enough
bones for him to equip a small army. But he was only able to kill 2 Skellies
before keeling over. Made L46 during this fight. When I reached the Cats 4 I
teleported diagonally from the stairs into Andy's throneroom, and killed
enough Fallen to replenish my posse. Then it was teleport right on top of
her and it was over quickly. Overall, A1 was a breeze and I thought I had
started out at way too high a level.
When I reached Lut Gholein I still had a good sized army, so I immediately
went for Raddy. Ran through L1 & L2 (picking up the WP along the way) at P8,
then switched back to P1 for the fight on L3. Once again, it was a battle of
the Skellies, so seeing the good guys from the bad guys was a bit of a
problem. And Raddy was a teleporter too, so we were both popping all around
the room. Made L47 when he went down. The desert areas were a breeze. And
the Maggot Lair and CVT were simple with teleport. The first real scary part
was in the Palace 3 where I had a NDE. I got caught in a big group of
baddies and had problems with block and hit recoveries. Used up a whole belt
full of potions before I was able to get out of that one. Of course I had to
cover the whole AS before finding the Summoner on the fourth branch. Started
a new game, and switched to P1 when I got close to him. Built up my army and
a quick teleport onto his platform made for a quick fight. L48 came during
this fight. I was able to find my way to the socket room relatively quickly,
and Duriel was a pushover. By then I had Revive, so my army numbered 45 for
this fight. The big bug never had a chance.
Act 3 was no real problem. I made L49 recovering the Gidbin. The first real
fight was the High Council. But I made sure to hunt down all the Heirophants
nearby, so the actual battle went well. Though that did take a heavy toll of
my army, 4 Skellies and 8 Mages. I leveled to 50 here. Mephisto was a
typical run, TP across the moat and swamp him. Of course he dropped nada.
I scouted through A4, finding Izzy and Hetfatso's locations and the CotD and
RoF WPs. Then I started a new game to confront them. Izzy had spawner bugs
nearby, so raising my army was a snap. But Izzy had a Fanat boss pack with
him, and another boss who Amped us nearby. It was a time consuming battle,
as usual, but it never got threatening. Izzy was kind enough to drop a Gul
rune. Fatso turned up Might, Spec Hit, FE and LE, but I was able to isolate
him with bone walls and it was another controlled battle, making L51 when he
fell. Got nothing but disappointment from the Forge. Then it was time for
Diablo. I teleported across the paths and into the CS, stopping short of the
central area to switch back to P1. Then I ported to the pentagram and
blocked it off with BWs to build up my army. I did the Venom Lords first
since they usually wipe out my previous Skelly army with their Inferno. But
this time it wasn't too bad. Leveled to 52 doing Lord Disease. By the time I
made it to Diablo I had my full army of 45 waiting for him. Decrepify made
this another simple fight, Big D couldn't kill any of my minions. I made it
to L53 when he died.
So on to A5. Things got a lot tougher by this time. The monsters hit a lot
harder and my life seemed to go to a sliver more often than the rest of Hell
combined. I skipped Shenk on my way to the FH WP, since I only had a few
Skellies from the bodies along the way through the Bloody Foothills. It sure
would have been nice if I could have raised dead barbarians. Rescuing the
Barbs wasn't too bad. I'd teleport into the pen next to the door to let my
minions work on it, while I mingled with the Barbs to shield myself from the
crossfire. The most dangerous place turned out to be the Frozen River. It
seemed like Frozenstein was having a wookie convention around Anya since it
was packed nearly solid with furballs. It took me two trips to town to
refill my belt before I was able to talk to Anya the first time. And in
order to get back to her I had to lead off a lot of the baddies and park
them, very dangerous and I nearly bought the farm a few times. I easily used
50 full rejuves to rescue Anya. I then got the HoP WP, but saved Nilathuk
for last so that I could use Pindle's garden as a cheap source of Skellies.
I scouted out the rest of A5, getting all the WPs up to the Summit, then it
was time for battle. I raised a good many Skellies from Pindle, then went
and polished off Shenk (leveled to 54) to top off the Skellies and get a
full load of Revives. Then I immediately went back to my TP at the Summit
for the showdown with the Ancients. Korlic and Madwac were both FE, so I
gave them a wide berth. Didn't want to ruin the effort by succumbing to the
FE bug. It was probably the longest battle of the run, but the only
dangerous thing was that one of them was Holy Shock, so I had to drink the
occasional potion to keep myself and the merc topped off. I was only L54, so
I didn't officially get credit for the quest, so I couldn't enter the WK.
But I used an editor to give myself the WK2 WP, then backtracked to the
summit. I returned another time to finish up, and when I did the WK2 was
populated with Black Souls and Snakes. I barely survived a crossfire. So I
wimped out and started new games till a got a more friendly spawn. I ended
up covering almost the rest of the WK2 before I found the stairs down. But
WK3 was much better and I found those stairs quickly. As soon as I got down
I switched to P1, then teleported to the entrance of the Throne room. There
I walled things off and slowly built up my army. Clearing the throne was
easy enough and it was time for the minions. I went back to see Malah to
cure everyone's poison from Achmel just to be safe and so I didn't lose any
minions. I made level 55 around this time, and level 56 came during Lister's
pack. With 45 minions nothing was especially dangerous, though the Lister
pack took some time to vanquish, as usual. So then it was on to Baal. Three
quick teleports and I had him surrounded with minions, and he never had a
chance. Much quicker than even Lister's pack. I leveled to 57 when he puked
his guts out. Then all that remained was to deal with Nilathuk. I had
previously scouted out his level and knew right where to expect him. I came
in on the right side to his area and we got bogged down with his minions. I
thought I was giving them enough space, but a quick one, two CE had me down
to a sliver and half my minions were dead. Time for a hasty retreat and a
regroup. This time I teleported right down the left side and as soon as I
saw Nilathuk I ported right beside him. I backed away from him to get my
army deployed and to avoid any possible CEs, but before I could blink
Nilathuk was history. So there I stood a brand new level 57 Guardian.
Overall I found the effort easier than I expected. I finished up with 8
unspent skill points, and I never felt the need to change his gear as I
leveled up. My merc finished up at L46. I might give this another shot at a
lower level. The Homunculus and the Skiller charms were the only items I
used with that had a L42 requirement, and the Arm was next highest at L36.
Most all the rest of my gear was in the 29-32 level range. Starting in the
low 30's might prove too tough though since I won't have enough skills to
max my skellies out at the start, and have the golem and curses I would
need.
Regards-
Mark
Bongo-Fury