Matriarch Illian, 2h Sword Titan Bearzon [Sept 7/7]

[Fast Eddie]

A great write-up made for a very interesting read. I feel I an only dream of this sort of wealth. GG.

[Greebo]

Congrats!

A very interesting and detailed read, thanks for sharing.

I completely agree about Act 3. After a while I've learned to like the jungle too. I started to recognize whether or not I need to cross the river by the type of bridge and surroundings, to avoid running into a "cul-de-sac". I like it much better than Arcane Sanctuary, at least.

Apparently 'Beast' has two functions: besides bringing chars across species' lines it can also bring a character across a gender line. Who knew?

Considering you are wearing two, not one Angelic Ring, your AR seems a little low still. I can see how Raven Frost + Metalgrid wouldn't have worked. Bloodfist + Shadowdancer is an interesting combination for getting to 60% FHR.

Out of curiosity: how does a Dodge animation look like on a Bear? I mean... How?

--Greebo

PS. It took me like 60 seconds staring at that screenshot to figure out what was going on. ("Act 1 Rogue holding a sword? That doesn't make any sense...") Then I read the description.

[maxicek]

Thanks for all the replies everyone

It will be hard for you to come up with a concept to top this.

Actually I think I can, although I expect her to be a bit more fragile than Illian. The clues are in my trade thread...

How about a mat/pat with every unique sword in the game?

I did consider doing all the two handed swords, but I really am starting to dislike shields on melee characters more and more, except for builds like kickers. The main trouble is that you are very limited with builds. Most of the builds would be Paladins and Barbs as the chioces are very limited, especially for Amazons and Necros. I do have one eye on doing a 2h Sword grail including runewords, and I will try to make builds with as many as I can.

Obligatory sentence giving you grief for using respec goes here.

And I absolutely dig the fact you used a power build as an intermediary. That's what makes respeccing cool.

I do like re-specs. For my PvP characters it is invaluable. For PvM I certainly think it is no less cheesy than using a 1.09 Ravenclaw through normal. And, for most people, the game begins in hell. These days I want to get through normal and NM as quickly as possible.

I feel I can only dream of this sort of wealth. GG.

I know what you mean, I almost can't believe it myself as I write it. I look back at what I had a on my characters in the first 2h sword sept and compare it to Illian and it is at a whole different level. I started the sept, a bit over two years ago, when Neksja gave me the Faith. I have pretty much acumulated all of the items within that time.

Considering you are wearing two, not one Angelic Ring, your AR seems a little low still. I can see how Raven Frost + Metalgrid wouldn't have worked. Bloodfist + Shadowdancer is an interesting combination for getting to 60% FHR.

The only AR bonus I have is from Penetrate which may account for the lower than expected AR. The Bloodfist / Shadow Dancer combo is reasonably well know in PvP setups. The dext on the SDs also helps with blocking if you are using a shield - or to equip the sword in this case.

Out of curiosity: how does a Dodge animation look like on a Bear? I mean... How?

It's basically whay you see in that "where did the druid come from?" picture. You quickly shift to a druid and then shift back. It happens too quickly for my eyes to register it is a druid normally, but I managed to capture it mid dodge by chance.

[purplelocust]

Nicely done! The A1 merc meant you count count on regular applications of a decent level of Inner Sight, which was probably pretty helpful and good since you couldn't cast it and yours was a low level anyway. And well done dealing with a PI Infector! I've had melee characters with no decent option for PIs who spawned a PI Infector after tediously clearing out the CS and I ended up not being able to kill him. Re-clearing out the CS after having already struggled through it once was always terrible!