Having some fun...Timevalue's "NO"mancer

[timevalue]

Hey all,
I was a bit inspired by LozHinge the Unhinged's two Golemancer attempt threads and I wanted to try out something a little new with my favorite class...Necros. LozHinge's threads can be read and enjoyed elsewhere on this forum.
I am still fairly new at Diablo 2 EXP but I have enough experience to have beaten Normal Baal once several years ago with a Necro build I have long forgotten.
Even though Necros are my favorite class and there are a lot of great and helpful playing guides out there, I along with so many other newbie players can get a bit frustrated and overwhelmed with all the different choices out there for a Necro build. (After all, how many times do you see on this forum: "Do you like this build?", "How does this build look?", "What should I do with my remaining skill points on my fishymancer/poisonmancer?", etc.)
As a response to this common issue, I've decided to make normal Diablo 2 a little more challenging and fun with timevalue's new "NO"mancer build.

My "NO"mancer's name is (what else?) Rathma.

Here are my rules for now:
--Absolutely NO skill or attribute points are allowed to be spent! Yes, I must save every single skill and attribute point and see how far I can get purely on items and my merc.
--Rathma is completely untwinked (all items self-found or bought in game).
--I am playing Softcore single-player passworded games on Battle.net. If (more likely, when) the day comes that I die I will hopefully have a good idea exactly where I want to spend my skill/attribute points.
--I will only allow myself to pass through each area only ONCE. Yes, a one-time pass through on all the adventures this game has to offer. No re-running anything. The major exception *HAS* to be allowed for Battle.net connection issues. If I lag out and lose my game I will allow myself to re-run an area from my last captured waypoint. This is unfortunately a fairly common experience but it hasn't happened so far (thankfully!).
--I also have 7 "permed" mules set up for Rathma on my BNet account. Most of them are already crammed with cheap items to test out an iron golem with since I have never tried an Iron Golem before! :rolleyes:

The reason I am playing it this way is to buy myself some time to figure out a promising future path for Rathma that is eventually Hell-viable (but not too cookie-cutterish like the uber-powerful Fishymancer build). At the moment, I am leaning towards a poison/golem build.
This also can help me to become a better player!
Since I am in Act 2 Normal already without having died yet I will give a rundown of my progress so far on my next post.

[timevalue]

Before I describe what has happened so far I need to ask a couple of newbie questions:
a) How can I take screenshots of my game and post them here?
b) How do I provide links to other threads or posts from here?

Thanks!

Right now Rathma is level 20 and I am in Act 2 Normal, having just taken the Horadric Staff of Kings from the Maggot Lair.

With a few exceptions, Act 1 Normal was a breeze...as long as I was very PATIENT! The only three times I recalled getting close to being killed was with Andariel, Coldcrow, and another random Frost Nova boss somewhere in the Black Marsh. Andariel was not that big of a deal when I had town portals ready and antidote potions in my belt.
Since Rathma is so dependent on items I have placed a large emphasis on gold find equipment for now. I constantly need to shop for good wands and they are expensive!! I am also gambling for myself and my merc frequently since I can only run through each area once. I have been patiently cleaning out and selling EVERYTHING (still selling arrows and bolts at vendors even though I already have 150,000 gold in my stash and 75,000 in my pocket :prop: ).
I have two gold find small charms: 6% and 10% (lucky find!), 26% ring of greed, and I gambled 48% gold find heavy leather gloves.
I am also fortunate to have found a ring of regeneration (+5) in Andariel's catacombs.
I am also trying to master the art of "synchronizing" my +skills wands bought at the shops with +skills totems I find out on the battlefield.
My usual setup for now:
WAND: +1 RS, +1 Clay Golem (aka Gumby), +1 Skelly Mage
ZOMBIE HEAD: +1 Clay Golem, +1 Skeleton Mastery
So, I am usually running around with lvl 2 Gumby and a lvl 1 mastered Mage as a missile backup for my Act 2 Blessed Aim merc.

On my weapon switch I can have:
+1 Terror
+1 CE
+3 Clay golem
The only problem is that I MUST use my Unraveller Head on this setup that requires 18 strength. I have a rare sash that gives +2 strength and a small charm to give another +1, but it prevents me from wearing the Arctic Binding belt I found when I killed Radament.
As an aside, I am wearing a Biggin's Bonnet unique cap I found near the Smith in Act 1 monastery (more life and mana!) but I don't know what I will do with the Beserker's helm I found when looking for the Horadric cube :tongue:

[Lycanthronick]

I am confused about a couple things.

How are you going to make a Golemancer without spending skills? You are looking for a + to iron golem and + to golem mastery on gear as your only source of golem skills?

I don't think you can synergize skills with anything but hard skill points spent in it's synergies. Ie: plus skills to synergies will not "synergize" your main skill.

All in all, your experiment sounds fun and challenging. I am sure with just +1 amp wand, your merc could solo normal difficulty if you don't mind tp'ing to heal him. GL.

[timevalue]

Lycanthronick,
This adventure is simply a learning experience for me but I see your point. At the moment, I have a wand that offers:
+1 raise skeleton
+1 raise skelly mage
+1 clay golem

Since this wand offers plusses in BOTH raise skeleton and skeleton mage it gives the necessary prerequisite for the higher skeleton mages skill.
What I am **hoping** for soon is to find a wand that offers (+1 clay, +1 blood, and +1 iron) on the same item to give me the necessary prerequisites. I'm sure an item like this would be very expensive in the shops and I will have to walk in and out of town a lot until a good wand shows up in the vendor's inventory. This is why I am trying to find lots of gold% equipment as I will be spending a lot of money!
I did find out the hard way about the "Graverobber" mod that offers +1 to all summoning skills. I paid 11,000 for this wand to try it out but it only offers +1 to the skills already granted to me by the totem I equip.
~timevalue

[timevalue]

Lycanthronick,
I forgot to say I think you have my "synchronizing" my wand and totem confused with skill synergies. What I meant by "synchronizing" my wand and totem was to have a decent layout of a few item-granted skills that work well together in the beginning. So, if I had a wand with +1 teeth and a totem with +1 skeleton mastery it would be considered much less useful and "synchronized" than a wand with +1 RS, CG, SM and a totem with +1 CG.
~timevalue

[prion]

i dunno what you mean by prerequisites, unless thats part of your rules that i missed. if you have +3 mages, you get those three mages, you don't need points in skellies or +skel items. you can try out IG without having anything in summoning tree.

[timevalue]

Prion,
That's good news, thanks for telling me! I didn't know that for sure until now.
Prereq's were not part of my rules, no. Anything goes where items are concerned as long as it's untwinked.
~timevalue

[timevalue]

Halfway Through Act 2
I have just finished restoring the Horadric Staff to its original condition after a rather hairy final fight at the Claw Viper Temple's altar. My merc required 2 full rejuvie potions during the final fight, but my little paper tiger gang and I came out of it all in reasonably fine shape.
At this point, my skeleton warrior with lvl 1 mastery is useless so I've been relying on Gumby, my merc, and a lvl 1 mastery mage for backup.
It looks more and more like I am becoming a "Mercmancer"! Maybe some wand shopping will solve this problem.....I did finally find a +1 Golem Mastery totem, however...
Found three set items so far in my game but two of them are of no use except maybe for some weird Iron Golem down the road.
I have 150k in my stash and another 150k in my pocket because of my 90%+ gold find and taking LOTS of runs back into town selling indescribably huge piles of junk laying all over the desert.
Rathma thinks this may someday pay off for him in a lucky gambling session if he keeps up the hard work. Not really looking for uniques or set items, just a nice rare with good mods that will help him survive the increasingly hellish encounters ahead. (A nice rare life-leech polearm for his merc wouldn't hurt, either.)
Rathma, Level 21, Act 2 Normal

[timevalue]

My mules are under strain!
Rathma is taking a brief rest before pressing on into Jehryn's palace.
One of the great things about Diablo 2 are the hours someone can put into setting up a strategy and careful item management.....all to prove itself in the arena of terrifying, death-defying battles that can be over in mere seconds or minutes.
Years ago when I played Diablo 2 before the expansion pack came out I was once a failed Barbarian that admitted defeat in the face of Diablo himself before finally succeeding against Baal as a Necromancer.
Those bad memories of Diablo come back to haunt me to this day....
How?
Bad potion management!
As a barbarian I remember spending ALL of my worldly gold and possessions buying healing potions trying to defeat Diablo...only to give up broke and in disgust.
Now, as Rathma, my mules are holding well over 150 (perhaps even 200+) light and regular healing and mana potions that I have saved since I set off for the Den of Evil.
Perhaps I can trim this down a bit, eh?
Time for a little housecleaning!
I did learn today that potion effects DO NOT stack. There is simply no reason to take two healing or mana potions hoping it will replenish faster.
I am also wondering why I am keeping so many "regular" potions around when my base life right now is only 75 and my mana is only 65....hmmm....

Rathma, Level 21, Act 2 Normal

[thepandafactor]

3 healing pots (any kind) + 3 mana pots (any kind) = rejuvenation potion
3 rejuvenation potion = full rejuvenation potion.

if you didn't already know them, those cube recipes may help you.

[timevalue]

Thepandafactor,
Yes, I knew about cubing 3 regular rejuv's into a full one and have done a dozen of those so far, but I *didn't* know about the 3 mana + 3 health being cubed into a regular rejuv...thanks for telling me! :thumbsup:
Since I am only going through each area ONCE I can only collect a limited number of gems and this is a perfect opportunity to avoid that dreaded 3 mana + 3 health + 1 chipped gem = 1 full rejuv. Why waste precious gems when you don't have to?
This gives me an idea....sell off a bunch of higher-grade potions and use the money to buy back minor potions for cubing. (And, of course, more gold for gambling and wand buying). Life is grand! :cloud9:

(A few minutes pass by....)

Well, sadly enough, life is not so grand. 3 mana + 3 health does not transmute into a regular rejuv, I'm afraid. I've just tested this myself and when I looked at http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/cube.shtml I can now see that it requires a *standard* gem + 3 mana + 3 health to make a full rejuvenation...Ahh well, you win some, you lose some.....

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Ah, the joys of low-budget, low-power questing ... :laughing:

Glad you're having fun with your challenge! :jig:

[timevalue]

LozHinge,
Hey! You are the perfect person to ask....how do I take screenshots of my game and post them here? I won't be doing nearly as many as you do on your thread, but I wouldn't mind trying an occasional one. Thanks!
I am indeed having fun even on Normal because I am not an experienced player. You and I are in whole different "universes" right now, so to speak.
My biggest problems right now are:
a) Inventory management - Even with 7 mules on my B.Net account, it is becoming an ever-growing problem handling everything efficiently and finding enough space. Maybe I'm just a pack rat :azn:. I am looking forward to trying out an Iron Golem so I can get rid of some of the junk items cluttering my stashes.
b) Strength - My strength is only 15 (+any magic bonuses) which will restrict me from wearing hardly anything for armor. My big "advantage" here is still the slower stamina drain from wearing light armor so I can try to run away from life-threatening trouble.
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/basics/characters.shtml

For the moment, Rathma is carefully reorganizing his seven mules' inventories, looking at Horadric Cube recipe options, and thinking about which wands to purchase (if any), and what items to do some gambling on.

[timevalue]

Gambling Lesson, My Merc, and Palace Cellar
I have said early on I wanted to have a lot of gold find equipment for super-duper shopping and gambling sessions. Not long after re-arranging my inventory I blew about 125,000 gold gambling on heavy leather gloves, leather armor, and a few heavy boots. What did I have to show for it? Not much! Only one useless rare was gambled and the best item was magical gloves with 30% fire resist and 16% magic find. I'll keep it in my stash but I'm still wearing my 48% gold find gloves in the meantime. The hard-earned money can disappear faster than an ice cube melts on the desert streets of Lut Gholein!

Gold find is important for Rathma, but I need to start focusing on good weaponry and armor for my merc along with maybe a good wand that beefs up my clay golem when I finally meet Duriel.

My merc is naturally my main killing force right now ("Hazad" is his name). I chose to have a Blessed Aim merc instead of Defiance for when I do finally cast an Iron Golem he won't have such high defence that it impedes its thorns ability. (At least, that is MY logic, maybe I'm missing something here....:scratch: )
I salvaged 35,000 gold's worth of treasure from the palace cellar, yet it was quite a light show dodging the constant volley of arrows from horror archers! Although I once lost about 60% of my life by standing next to an Invader during a moment of B.Net lag, nothing is worse for the wear. I did most of the dancing and arrow ducking while my merc's life leech scythe always moved in for the kill.
Cleansing the Arcane Sanctuary is my next step, but I am very concerned about the Summoner's powers to kill in a hurry. Perhaps I should keep my distance? Poor Rathma tries to remember his adventures with this mini-boss in a past lifetime.....
Rathma, Level 21 - Act 2 Normal

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Screenshots take quite a bit of work, as I've discovered during Balboa's adventures ... :shocked:

1. Hit Print Screen when you have a screen you want to post
2. Create an account on some picture hosting site (Photobucket works well for me)
3. Use the the site's upload facility to locate your screenshot(s) - they are in the Diablo 2 folder on your computer - and upload.
4. Copy the URL of the s/shot from the picture host site page.
5. Create a new post in the appropriate DiabloII forum - you should "Go Advanced" for simplicity.
6. Type your message and highlight the word or phrase that you want to use as your hot-link to the hosted picture.
7. Click on the icon that looks like the Earth with chain links superimposed.
8. Paste the URL you copied in 4. above into the dialogue box - make sure you overwrite the "http" bit.
9. Click OK on the dialogue box - the highlighted text in your message will be surrounded by code that provides the hyperlink you want.
10. Job done

I change the name filenames of the s/shots I want to upload (before I upload them) to something meaningful - it helps a lot.

Inventory management - tell me about it. I have lots of junk (I am collecting socketables like a loon) and it's hard to locate the good stuff sometimes.

Strength - I upped mine to 36 to enable me to wear Darkglow ringmail - yes, I'm still wearing it in Hell.

As for Diablo II inexperience ... well .. I'll tell you later ... :hide:

[timevalue]

Turning my Act 2 Merc Into a Killing Machine
Rathma has not ventured into the Arcane Sanctuary since the last posting but, instead, he has been researching good ways of upgrading his merc Hazade's weaponry the best way possible.
Life leech on a polearm is always a terrific bonus, but....
The best defense can also be a good offense, and high damage is *almost* always the way to seek protection from Diablo's minions.
Taken from this site I could get an excellent idea of what to gamble on now and in the near future....
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/weaponsandarmor.shtml
My merc can wield javelins, but the damage is too low....so spear and polearm-class weapons are the way to go!!

Damage AND Speed!
This link helped me a great deal to learn which weaponry can deal the most damage per second. (Weapon Speed Calculator)
http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english
I multiplied each weapons' number of attacks per second times the average damage to see what the best weapons types are....hmmm....

Dmg per second - Polearm
---------------------------------
37 Bardiche
41 Voulge
46 Scythe
76 Poleaxe
88 Halberd
84 War Scythe

I must present spears on my next post.....

[timevalue]

Turning My Act 2 Merc Into a Killing Machine (cont.)

Dmg per second - Spear
-------------------------------
29 Spear
37 Trident
42 Brandistock
59 Spetum
96 Pike

It is becoming clear to me which spears and polearms I should try to gamble on before taking on Duriel....Halberds, War Scythes, and Pikes!
Unfortunately, my level is only 21 now and I can only gamble occasionally on Poleaxes or Pikes until I level up a bit more....Excellent! Excellent!

Good Knowledge is Always Useful!:cloud9:

[timevalue]

LozHinge,
Thank you very much for showing me how to post screenshots. I won't be doing it very often, as it does look like a lot of hard work! I will try to bring it out on special occasions like a fire golem. :laughing:

[timevalue]

Hazade! You are 'da man!

I am happy to report that the Arcane Sanctuary has now been cleared of all evil denizens and the true symbol of Tal Rasha's tomb has been revealed.
Lots of good things happened in this session, but I also had my first real near-death experience (NDE)
Before setting out to the Sanctuary I decided to gamble for some decent pikes for my merc Hazade. After spending about 35,000 I ran into a pretty good magic "Fine Pike of the Leech" that offered 30% enhanced damage, +22 AR, and 4% life leech! YIPPEE!!
During my many trips back into town selling to vendors I would check with Elzix to see if he was selling anything good for gloves and belts....sure enough, I finally got lucky and bought 60% gold find gloves at the dirt cheap price of around 600 gold and a 70% gold find light belt with 17% fire resistance for around 1,000 gold. We're rich, baby, rich!. My gold find is now 170% or so; this should serve me well in Act 3, I believe.
An easy walk in the park....mostly
Hazade's new leech pike basically turned all the denizens of the Arcane Sanctuary into quick, easy one-and-two hit flypaper kills. For most of the journey, there really wasn't much point in even having me summon Gumby. (Did I also explain that I have NEVER even cast a curse since I've started Rathma's adventures? It hasn't been needed so far, but I'm sure that will change...). Hazade was running the show all the way and I was just along for the ride picking up all the junk and treasure his poor, unfortunate victims left behind.
With his weapon dealing 55-181 damage and 4% life leech, I never even needed to give him a single minor healing potion! My research into his weaponry is really paying off. :thumbsup:
The only problems I dealt with were guiding him around sharp corners while the Hell Clans were chasing me down the hallways.
Two moments of terror....
While making my way towards the Summoner using the teleport pads I would always see groups of 4-6 Hell Clans clustered around the nearest pad. I had no choice but to take the pad. Hazade would slaughter the group in 3 seconds, but the Hell Clans would smack 70% of my life away in the meantime. I required one full rejuvie for this. I wised up, however, and cast Gumby a short distance away from the next teleport pad so the group would wander off a bit after him while Hazade and I got closer. Worked like a charm and they never harassed me again.
My last near-death experience was, of course, the Summoner. I don't understand the nature of his magicks and I could use the group's assistance in knowing what he casts. I ducked and avoided his missles well enough, but the next thing I know I have about 15 life left when I was near his platform and I quickly had to gulp the last full rejuvie in my belt. (I have 8 more stashed away.) Can anyone explain to me how this happened? I really would like to know.
All's well that ends well....
Immediately after this near-disaster Hazade quickly scurried up to the Summoner's platform and his Fine Pike of the Leech zapped the poor Summoner back to the Burning Hells faster than you can say "SASQUATCH!"
Rathma, Level 22 - Act 2 Normal

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

For me, "research" is known as "The R Word" and is never spoken in my home.

Thanks for the figures on damage/second for spears and polearms - very useful :thumbsup:

Grats on duffing up the Summoner - I never liked that guy. Reminds me of my terrible experiences with Archbishop Lazarus back in Diablo 1.

How much life do you have - base and modified?

[Mad Mantis]

Please EDIT your posts when you can and do not triple post.

[timevalue]

Rathma Meditates, Rests, and Prepares for the Trials Ahead....
---------------------------------------------------------------

After his very encouraging and successful run in the Arcane Sanctuary Rathma is now at rest for the moment. He realizes that he has captured the final waypoint of Act 2 - Canyon of the Magi. In order for him to follow his strict rule of running and thoroughly cleansing all the monsters and loot in each area only ONCE, he must indeed take down the entire Canyon along with raiding and looting the six False Tombs. To top it all off, he must also defeat Duriel all in the same Battle.net session! This will be a long journey and a fair amount of time (along with lots of in-game errands!) will be required before the next adventure session is posted.

My Response to Posters
-----------------------

LozHinge - I can now certainly appreciate all the hard work you put into GumbyBalboa's adventures. It is a really tricky experience preparing to post everything on Diabloii.net about what is going on in your game. I am strictly a beginner but I am trying to learn as quickly as I can.
Here is my first screenshot (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot001.jpg).
Hope it comes through okay! As you can see, Rathma's base life is 76 (actually 76.5 life since Necros gain 1.5 life per level). His base mana is 67. He has all 23 unused skill points from levelling along with the Den of Evil and Radament skill points. He also has all 105 unspent attribute points. You will have to take my honest word for it that he has never died since I can't make any hardcore characters yet. I will certainly post a screenshot if and when he dies. Rathma's enhanced magical life is around 95-100. This is mostly from charms along with (if I remember correctly...) +10 life from his unique Biggin's Bonnet cap. He usually carries 2 small +5 life charms (one of these charms is a really nice one that has +5 life and 7% lightning resist). He also has a +15 life grand charm and a +8 life large charm in his stash for when he faces Duriel. Finally, I am posting his merc Hazade's new life-leech pike (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot003.jpg)...for now, it rocks! I will continue to gamble for better weaponry and armor for Hazade....he can certainly wear something a little heavier than a skull cap! :rolleyes: Despite my losing 125,000 to gambling for mostly useless items before entering Jehryn's Palace my cash situation is once again very healthy due to my 170% gold find. I have the full 150,000 gold in my stash and about 105,000 in my pocket at the moment.

Mad Mantis - I am really sorry that I'm multiple posting. I am still a beginner and my skills at efficient posting pales in comparison to LozHinge's skills. I will try to condense everything I can in a single posting. For some reason, I was having some serious trouble on my posting about merc weapon damage per second and I had to split it up into two posts (can't remember why...):scratch:
Rathma - Level 22, Act 2 Normal

[timevalue]

Rathma's Push Towards Duriel...
-------------------------------

Rearranging Inventory
After some much-needed rest Rathma streamlined much of the junk out of his mules' inventories: throwing out all potions ranked "light" or "minor", building his mules' strength to carry interesting-looking heavy armor instead of leaving these large, bulky items in the mules' backpacks, etc. He figured much space would be needed for any possible rares/uniques found in the Canyon during the final session of Act II.

Off to the Canyon!
At the outset, everything was working smoothly (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot006.jpg). Even the blue steel scarab lightning beetles infesting the lands were no match for Hazade's leech pike. Crusher gorillas (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot008.jpg) made guest appearances, and even though Rathma wanted to try putting his +1 Amplify Damage totem to work on these creatures, it rarely was necessary. The Canyon was cleared quickly and systematically (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot007.jpg), yielding a fair bit of gold and blue magic items for selling back in town.

Taking out the Tombs, One by One
Even though Rathma knew exactly which tomb was the real one, he chose to clean out every single one of them for treasure and experience. The very first one (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot010.jpg) was by far the best of the seven. After a tough doorway fight involving a pack of blue steel lightning scarabs backed up by a Decayed boss group (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot013.jpg) that briefly sent even his merc Hazade's health into the "yellow" zone, Rathma's second unique item (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot014.jpg)in his whole game was dropped. He excitedly went back into town where Cain identified it as the Bloodrise Morning Star (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot017.jpg). Perhaps this would make for an interesting Iron Golem someday?
The next two tombs were fairly nondescript, though it showed just how weak my level 2 clay golem was becoming (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot020.jpg). "No problem, sir", said Hazade. His admirable mopping up of glass-cannon Gorebellies (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot021.jpg) proved he had earned his 700 gold piece fee from me a long time ago.

Ancient Kaa.....
The fourth tomb was just like the others only it held Ancient Kaa the Soulless (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot023.jpg). At first, Hazade very wisely engaged him for a good fight that removed most of ancient Kaa's health in a hurry, but it seems poor Hazade is a very suggestible mercenary....vulnerable to being hypnotized by all the skeletons being raised around him. After removing a full 97% of Ancient Kaa's health, Hazade suddenly gets "distracted" and runs off to hide behind a row of unbroken urns. (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot025.jpg) I (Rathma) could only gape at this hilarious spectacle in awe and wonder, "What the *&#%? Do you REALLY need to go to the bathroom NOW?" Upon seeing this, I was very seriously tempted into running up to Ancient Kaa myself and try to finish him off in meelee with my lowly wand, but I was really concerned about my low base life (less than 100) and what damage Kaa's bone spirits could do to me. Thinking quickly, I cracked all the urns laying in Hazade's way so he could finish his bathroom break and dispose of this Unraveller Boss. A bunch of potions and a couple of flawed emeralds (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot027.jpg)were my reward for this encounter.

A Gambling Break
Hazade's erratic behavior around Ancient Kaa was very worrisome and my pockets were literally bulging with cash after clearing the fourth tomb. "Hazade, let's take a break, get our minds off our troubles....let's gamble on some new pikes for you, whaddaya say?" I spent about 130,000 gold looking for any good helmets and pikes for Hazade. The results were "okay" (but not great) since I came up with a decent rare great helm (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot027.jpg)and an average rare pike with extra damage against the undead that I let Hazade try out for a short while.

The C-R-A-S-H!
My serious troubles began right around the time I was starting the sixth false tomb. I was in town selling some plundered goods when, all of a sudden, my trade screen freezes up on me for a good 60 seconds. "Uh, oh.....the Battle.net lag beast has arrived....". From the outset of this session I was a bit concerned whether B.Net would allow me to spend the 4-6 hours necessary to finish off Duriel starting from the Canyon of the Magi waypoint. Sure enough, my connection was interrupted and I frantically tried to re-join my game to no avail....."Game does not exist". VERY irritating, to say the least! I now had to come up with a reasonable compromise since I was booted out of my game....I decided to simply run a straight path directly to a random false tomb and finish it, pretending it was the last false tomb. I would not pick up any treasure from the Canyon itself. Once the so-called "last false tomb" was finished I would run along the canyon wall directly to the real Tomb of Tal Rasha. This was as realistic as I could possibly make it given the circumstances.

More and more trouble....
The tomb I randomly picked was pretty much like any of the others, with another notable Decayed boss & blue steel scarab pack fight (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot040.jpg), but apparently I must have been overly concerned about Hazade's "dumb" behavior around Unravellers and their raised skeletons. I had already grown to expect an imperfect AI (Artificial Intelligence) from my hireling, but I figured I would help "lead" Hazade in the right direction a little bit by actually encouraging him to fight the summoner instead of the summoned.
We entered a storage room full of skeletal creatures with a few Unravellers lurking in the dark corners. Hazade and Gumby were busily at work in their misguided fury, hacking away at endless skeletons that never failed to re-raise themselves. In a bold move on my part, I strode confidently in the room from behind the doorway so I could try to "lead" Hazade towards one of the Unravellers hiding in the shadows. I figured my bold leadership strategy would make an excellent screenshot (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot041.jpg). As soon as I took this shot all action suddenly "froze" (brief lag) for 4-5 seconds and here is how everything looked afterwards (http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z316/Timevalue/?action=view&current=Screenshot043.jpg).
:weep: