What do you guys use to run Nihlatak?

[Noite Escura]

I was thinkg of setting up a Hammerdin to do it now that I have Enigma. What do you use? I wouod like to know what class/build is more popular

[jhorion]

Any chars with enigma + natures peace ring should do the trick..

[WrongdayJ]

I like to run Nilathak with a Frost Maiden, or a Frost Zealot- basically anything with area of effect cold damage.

Shattering the corpses helps alot in keeping his darn CE's in check.

Nature's Peace ring helps a ton, too.

[PhatTrumpet]

I used an IK Barb with a bunch of PDR just for the survival factor. He can't Teleport, but he can run really fast. :tongue:

[hookserdoo]

I use a berserk barb with nature's peace. Howl and/or warcry all the way to Nihl ~ usually takes only a minute or so.

[Bjam]

I use my Uber Zealot with Nature's Peace, huge defense and good PDR. He basically just sprints the whole way with Vigor and Azurewrath equipped (switch). Takes about a minute.

[Arklon]

I use standard hammer gear with act 2 merc i can get to him in less than a minute. Just teleport right in the middle of all of em and start throwing hammers like mad following him if he teleports or moves. The only thing that even remotely gives me a problem is the damn serpents with all that poison

[JME]

I used an IK Barb with a bunch of PDR just for the survival factor. He can't Teleport, but he can run really fast. :tongue:

I too used an IK barb and it was/is very effective. Leap attack to the middle, one more swing, pick up key, save/exit, rinse/repeat. Awesome tank, high life, I liked the build and the runs were always very fast. Tele is less important while doing dkey runs due to the simplicity of the maps.

I wouod like to know what class/build is more popular

What is most popular is frequently the most boring.

In this case, it would likely be the hammerdin, regardless of how many of them post here.

[Hulkcore]

I do them with either my Hdin, or (and more easily) with my 'nigma using, dual hoto wielding frenzy barb. Tele right on top of nihl, howl like 8 times until everything runs away, and frenzy him like once.

[sirwhere]

I used to do it with a whirlwind babo, but now I'm using my singer babo, who can tele REAL FAST :) Just go down there, howl at the minions and tele-cry on top of him. Nihlathak's got low life so he goes down pretty quick.

Can take him on 8 player games no prob. The only annoyance is the insight merc who keeps dying if there are vipers in the chamber. Maybe I'll swap his chains of honor for a gladiator with sol socket ^^

[Darkflight]

Why don't anyone do it with a Ligthning trapsin?

Don't go close to him, stay around the corner. Drop 5 Lightning Sentrys around the corner and close enough to fire on his minions. After a few seconds you drop down 5 Death Sentries and they will blow up all the corpses in a few seconds and Nihilatak will die.

Very easy and very safe.

[Noite Escura]

Why don't anyone do it with a Ligthning trapsin?

Don't go close to him, stay around the corner. Drop 5 Lightning Sentrys around the corner and close enough to fire on his minions. After a few seconds you drop down 5 Death Sentries and they will blow up all the corpses in a few seconds and Nihilatak will die.

Very easy and very safe.
Sorry if I ask, have you really tried this?

What is most popular is frequently the most boring.

In this case, it would likely be the hammerdin, regardless of how many of them post here.

Yeah, I thought of giving that 'nigma to my barb and throwing dual Spirit on switch. Leap+conc should work fine I wonder. But right now his weapons suck. Then I though of my Hdin, because I think I only need Wizspike to make him able...

[krischan]

I think a FO/CL sorc with Nature's Peace will be very good at this and versus the Countess and the Summoner as well. She's a very quick teleporter and her CL will kill everything there except tomb vipers. That's what FO is for and you won't need more than one per tomb viper. When Nihlathak is CI/LI (happens rarely), let your merc do the job while you care about the summons.

[mjkittredge]

I have a question. Why would anyone want to run Nihlathak in the first place? Is it that much quicker/more rewarding than running act end bosses?

[zallus]

he is really easy to get 2... There are only 3 maps to get to the 3rd level. and once you figure out how to follow the white painting, you can do him in like 15seconds.

He is one of 3 chars that can drop grand charms that can get the 41+vita mod. He is able to drop every item in the game. And on top of it he drops destruction keys which are the most valuable.

I like to do him with any of these.

H'din using redemption as aura or natures peace ring.
Windy druid with natures peace ring
light sorc with natures peace ring

Pretty much any char that can tele that has a natures peace ring on.

[mephiztophelez]

i use a k/t'sin. no enigma, no natures peace, no need for them either. i have known IK barbs to be pretty good Nihl runners, leap + howl does a wonderful job of minion suppression. straight-up blizz sorcs can do Nihl unless he's cold immune.

i do pack a goodly wodge of pdr, mdr, fhr & %dr tho'. i can knock him over fast enough to get a temp-ban. if all goes as it should, Nihl is the first thing to die on any run, apart from possibly my merc or shadow from Vipers.

for preference, nihl is a great target in big games. he is the second highest level non-uber creep in the game. d-keys are a rather nice currency as for high-runes, he shares the best drop rates with Hephasto. needless to say they are still pretty rare. i'll echo the point about charms he drops, for re-rolling purposes they are identical to Baal GC's

as a side note, i've found a heap of nice socketable pally shields down in the Halls of Vaught for some reason.

tips for Vipers: i highly reccomend packing some integer DR into a character for Nihlathak running. at ~45dr, you become effectivly immune to the physical component of the vipers poison clouds and the succubi with their little red puff-balls of doom lose the worst of their sting. along with some MDR and decent fire res, you can soak up the worst of any CE's. i just find it simpler to ignore everything else (CoS + MB ftw) and kill Nihl first, don't give him any ammo.

i say again: neither the Slain Monsters Rest In Peace mod nor Teleport are required to run Nihlathak quickly and safely.

[Darkflight]

[QUOTE=Noite Escura;5437391]Sorry if I ask, have you really tried this?
[QUOTE]

I haven't done it much, only a couple of times, but it works very well. Nihilatak and his buddys doesn't even see you so you don't need to worry about his Corpse Explosion. The Lightning Sentrys kills a few of them, the Death Sentrys blow it all up. And Nihilatak dies pretty fast when 3-4 corpses are blown up every second. My trapsin hasn't even seen Nihilatak alive yet. :grin:

[sorcyone]

The only annoyance is the insight merc who keeps dying if there are vipers in the chamber. Maybe I'll swap his chains of honor for a gladiator with sol socket ^^

My merc uses rare helm +2 Amazon 20% all resists 7 DR and 2 sockets with 2 Sol for 21DR. And Fortitude for another 7DR. I just found a 20DR Bane so I might switch to that.

[Ember]

A summoning necromancer was quite safe, as I was able to focus on using Corpse Explosion before he did. Using a Commando-mancer with Enigma was also incredibly easy - not to mention fast. Blobbing right on top of him was enough to kill him nigh instantly.

[boltztrew]

my light sorc can easily run him (obviously natures peace)

[Frosty_The_Snowman]

I'm using a Summoner most of the time. I just CE all the bodies myself, before Nihlathak :grin:. Sort of... combat fire with fire :rolleyes: !

I've also a Lightning sorc that does the job well, but she tends to die more often (most probably because she's not fully completed yet).

[HateAndPride]

I have an ice-only blizzard sorc, but still do Nihlathak runs, even though it's a tad slow.

I tele up to the corner and let my merc kill the ice immunes around Nihlathak, while I stand behind and static (at a respectable distance). My merc survives the corpse explosions due to his 17% life leech.

Sometimes, I tele straight into the room, blizzard and tele out again. On some occasions that is all it takes to kill him.

[Reneirwolfcastle]

he is really easy to get 2... There are only 3 maps to get to the 3rd level. and once you figure out how to follow the white painting, you can do him in like 15seconds.That got my attention :) Care to explain? It takes me like 10 mins of exploring before I find him..

I run keys....well, do everything with my one char lol. A frenzy barb. I just leap, howl then zerk so if a GC drops I know it's from Nihl.....though he has yet to drop one.

[inanefedaykin]

Damn't Reneir I'm about ready to just give you an enigma...
Check out the guide in the necromencer forum for maps.

And on topic, I use my whirly barb with ebotdcb and phoenix, dual wizzies on switch for teleporting. I hit around 7k life with bo so the occasional CE barely phases me but I will say that whirling through those poison clouds has resulted in a few s/e

[sirwhere]

That got my attention :) Care to explain? It takes me like 10 mins of exploring before I find him..

I run keys....well, do everything with my one char lol. A frenzy barb. I just leap, howl then zerk so if a GC drops I know it's from Nihl.....though he has yet to drop one.

The halls of pain have 3 starting points: top-left, top-right and bottom-left

top-left start has staircase down on top-right (i.e. go right)
top-right start has staircase down on bottom-middle (i.e. go down)
bottom-left start has staircase down on bottom-far-left (i.e. go left)

Pretty easy to memorize the maps. After a couple runs you should get it done.

[Damric]

I use a berserk skill barb with enigma. I teleport right on him, howl once then kill him. takes about 30 seconds to find him from the waypoint, and 1 second to kill him. I ignore the other monsters.

[jakotaco]

I use a berserk skill barb with enigma. I teleport right on him, howl once then kill him. takes about 30 seconds to find him from the waypoint, and 1 second to kill him. I ignore the other monsters.

Seems to be about the same tactics as me. :azn:
I usually follow up by killing diablo the same way. (howling the packs and killing the leaders)

[Urkbrug]

I usually do it with my fireball/hydra sorc.
thing is, I equip Nature's Peace and Nith can still use his corpse explosion even if my merc killed the minions or I did with fireball, which is not supposed to happen according to the Arreat Summit.

[sirwhere]

It could be that Nature's peace only works with melee attacks or physical damage... :/

[helvete]

Nature's doesn't work with minions. Don't really know if hydras are concidered minions, but I know for sure that traps are.

[Urkbrug]

that's what I'm saying..I kill all the minions with my fireball (as stated on the arreat summit - fireball and blizz work with nature's peace) or my merc does...and still, nith can CE my sorry face

quote : "It will work only if you kill the enemy with a physical damage or elemental (Blizzard or Fireball) and not magical damage" - arreat summit

[helvete]

Your merc is a minion, and unless he's wearing Tyrael's Might, nith can CE anything he gets last hit on.

[krischan]

When a monster dies and it makes a sound as if a paladin with redemption was around, Nature's Peace lays the corpse to rest. You can try it out yourself. To my knowledge, hydras are minions, just like traps, mercs etc. and Nature's Peace should work with magical damage. AS might be wrong here.

[Fareek]

just the good ole ik barb that can run fast and ww through the crowd. ww in his area helps avoid the CE. might use a full rejuv sometimes if i get caught too close to one.

[lazenby]

I use 2 char for him

Zealot paladin: Using vigor I just run through the hall of pain map ignoring everything. In the vaught I use redmption to soak up bodies as I go. Doesn't take long except for when there are sucubi who refuse to come out where I can kill them safely.

Summoner necro: tele through pain to the vaught and then out-gun him with CE like others have said. His CE isn't very high and you can easily outblast him with max CE.

[-Tempus-]

the barb i use to run Nihl is an old lev 92 made in 1.10 he can run him in 8 player games in the time it takes the others to get down to fight the first or 2nd group of monsters in baal runs. he also uses all old items that arent that hard to find/make/trade.

Helm: Arreats (ias/ed jewel) have a Guillaume (ias) in the stash
Plate: Gladiator's Bane (ias/resist poison jewel)
Belt: 1.08 String of ears (8% 15 15) or Tgods (for souls when i join the others doing baal)
Gloves: Bloodfist or (LoH, Soul drainers and some nice crafted gloves)
Boots: Gore riders
Amulet: Highlords or a crafted +2barb teleport i use this to run T keys
Ring1: very old 7/6 resist all ring from my pre lod days
Ring2: crafted 11%LL ring or Carrion Wind (or a dwarfstar with 15 MDR)
Shield: SS with -req/ed jewel
Weapon: 400%ed 45%ias magic sword made in 1.10 (605max dmg)
Switch: 2 echoing items

looks like junk to most but he can tank everything down there in full games....
he has low base str but dex to get max block and high def
75% block
-50% phy dmg
100% ias for a good zerk/conc attack speed (main is still ww)
90% fhr
-50% poison duration
35 DR
35 MDR
cant be frozen
his might merc uses a pole that can cast amp

since i know the maps i dont need to teleport and with only 1 point in r/w i get down there very fast. i run past most monsters and then use leapattack to get close to nihl, howl to make me some room then use my 1 point in conc to kill him. zerk is faster but with conc i dont lose my high def and can get LL. his CE and the poison doesnt do much of anything to my barb. the only thing that slows him down at all is if i have to fight a lot of phy imms that also mana leech. but howl takes care of most of them. if he casts amp on me then i start to take so dmg but then all i need to do is ww and i'm at full life again. i like to kill nihl first so i'm sure if i see a gc its from him (i save them to cube)

-tempus-