The Adventures of Vikhyat

[Valeli]

The Adventures of Vikhyat
(Last Edited on 07/06/12 - Working on tables for the stats. Sorry they don't align neatly yet. If anyone knows a trick, please share. Otherwise hopefully I can take care of it later.)

So. I decided I wanted to start up a SP Self-Found HC 2 Handed Barb, whose name is shamelessly stolen from the D2 merc of Act 5. I have no intention of making a real guide or anything out of this (mainly since I have no clue what I'm doing, and am fairly sure it won't go well...), but I thought that I could personally have more fun by chronicling the various things that happen. Neat drops. What level I was when I finished X, Y, and Z. Stuff like that. This said, I have some disclaimers.

First: It's not a new account. I've already leveled up my jeweler and blacksmith to helpful levels, and am just sort of stuck with that.

Second: I'm not going to ignore the gold in my stash and try to keep tab of Vikhyat's separately. I hardly have any gold worth mentioning in the stash though (~200k), so that's not a huge issue, but it bears pointing out. It will make the first bits of normal easier especially, since I'll be able to buy random gear for 3k or craft easily.

Third: This isn't really a disclaimer, so much as a point of order. The stats I'm showing are displayed as buffed by passive traits (weapon master, nerves of steel, etc), but don't take any active skills into account (war cry, battle rage, etc). You can probably figure out how much damage/crit chance/armor/etc those add on your own if you want, I felt it simpler to keep it this way though since there's no guarantee those will always be up (although most should be).

If my (mis)adventures go better than I expect, maybe this will be mildly helpful to some newer players as a side bonus just because it will show what HP/etc/etc I had when I cleared X, Y, or Z with a fairly sub-optimal build and very sub-optimal gear.

At any rate, don't worry about me bumping it or anything. I'll just go and edit this main post when I have things to say.



Normal:
Act One
The Fallen Star is Near! Vikhyat got created on 07/02/12, and the first bits of the game went as straightforwardly as one might expect, using the trusty default one handed ax and whatever upgrades he could pick up. At level 6 however, Vikhyat ran into a super awesome white "Solid Two Handed Sword" - 12.1 DPS, 9-13 Damage, 1.10 Attacks per second, and +2% Critical Hit damage. With little regard to personal safety, he dropped his one handed axe and targe.

At level 7, Vikhyat found a one handed weapon that was easily better than his white two handed sword and smiled bitterly. This was offset by getting to come back to town and crafting his very first piece of gear, a little leather doublet that regenerated not one but two! life per second. Not very impressive, but nice to get started on crafting. If I get anywhere, this will no doubt be a huge part of the game for me going self-found.

The Skeleton King: At level 8, Vikhyat had descended through the depths of the cathedral and was ready to take on the shade of King Leoric. Well. Maybe he wasn't ready, but he was locked in the room with it at any rate, and that's just as good. At this point my stats were -

Stats for The Skeleton King at Level 8
Str: 35          Dodge Chance: 2%
Dex: 20         Damage Reduction: 29.08%
Int:15           All Resist: 2
Vit: 23          Max Life: 298
Armor: 164
DPS: 17.09

My gear was, well, awful. I was still using that white two handed sword along with a pair of white pants. I had no rings, necklace, or shoulder pieces. I didn't have too many choices for skill layouts. I ended up going with Ground Stomp for some CC/Damage Reduction, and made my primary attack Cleave because it wasn't too much worse than bash, but gave good aoe for dealing with the skeleton adds. My Secondary attack was Leap in case I needed to vanish fast - and that was a good choice, because I did twice. This was probably the worst geared skeleton king I've ever done, and it took a little while and two (I think) minor healing potions. He got my health a bit low on occasions when I didn't get out of the way of his charge and repeated swings.

I prevailed in the end, and got my first rare piece - a leather doublet with 3 vitality! Not much, but I'll take it.

***
At level 10, I was finally able to craft a magical flamberge with the help of Haedrig. It didn't get particularly great mods, but at 16 dps, 12-17 damage, and 1.10 attacks per second it was a solid upgrade over my old white.

I also picked up the Ruthless passive to fill my first passive slot. +5% chance to crit and 50% critical damage isn't a ton, but it was nice to finally have a passive working in my favor.
***


The Spider Queen: At level 12, Vikhyat came to the spider queen. My gear was still all sorts of mismatched and random stats, but at least I had something in every slot this time, and none of it was white. This fight was really straight forward and easy. It took a little bit more time than it would have twinked, but I never came close to death. Vikhyat's stats at this point were...

Stats for The Spider Queen Aranae at Level 12
Str: 65           Dodge Chance: 3.3%
Dex: 33          Damage Reduction: 31.35%
Int:33            All Resist: 3
Vit: 39           Max Life: 474
Armor: 290     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 34.93     Crit Damage: +100%

Sadly, Aranae dropped nothing of use.
***

The Butcher: Now things were getting exciting for Vikhyat! I was pretty worried for this fight actually, because some of the champion packs of unburried had been giving me trouble on the way through the halls of Agony, and I gave some thought to leveling a touch more or trying to get somewhat better gear. Throwing caution to the wind in the end though, Vikhyat descended into the chamber of suffering.

I did some skill switching before this fight, since I knew it was a single target one. It's also worth saying that at this point Revenge was on my skill bar. Revenge is awesome. Probably for any build. It seems pretty awesome for a two handed one as well. My skills were Ground Stomp (Deafening Crash Rune), Revenge, and Hammer of the Ancients (Smash Rune) - this last one replaced the weapon throw I was playing with to pick of random ranged attackers. Bash (Onslaught Rune) replaced cleave as my primary since it had better single target damage and that's all I needed, and Leap (Iron Impact Rune) remained as my secondary for getting out of hot spots on the floor. I kept Ruthless as my passive. Vikhyat's stats at this point were....

Stats for The Butcher at Level ... Oh No, I Didn't Write It? It was 14 or 15 though. 15 I Think.
Str: 93           Dodge Chance: 3.6%
Dex: 36          Damage Reduction: 30.62%
Int:24            All Resist: 2
Vit: 72           Max Life: 810
Armor: 331     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 43.52     Crit Damage: +100%

The fight wasn't super fast (I'd even dropped my axe for a slightly worse dps one with a touch of vitality on it), but it was pretty smooth. I got hit by the flames a touch, but never had any HP problems that required use of the healing wells. I did use one potions, although I probably didn't have to. Rule #1 in HC though - it's better to use a potion and replace it later than save it and regret it. Hammer of the ancients seemed to do good damage, as did bash, and leap worked quite well both for getting me out of the flames and for temporarily giving me a solid defense. The butcher dropped a rare hat that was a minor upgrade, but was pretty stingy otherwise.

(Oh... if anyone's reading this, you may have noticed I left the Jailer mini boss out of my write up :x. Sorry about that. I simply forgot to check my stats after him. Suffice it to say that I got through, and revenge worked great to keep my life full while clearing his adds.)



Act Two
After starting act two, it became evident that I'm going to have to address my gear situation. I don't really like over leveling, even in hard core, but if I don't upgrade my gear somewhat things might go bad earlier on than I was expecting. I used most of my crafting supplies now at level 17 and was able to get a helm with 20 vitality and a socket, which isn't horrible (and certainly beat the earlier one). Unfortunately, since we're doing this character from scratch, I don't have any amethysts to stick in there yet (or rubies). The other thing I'll need is a new two handed weapon, but I can't really craft up a better one just yet. I've almost made it to Maghda, and may or may not try for her. If I do, I'm certainly going to farm gear/crafting materials a bit afterwards though.

Maghda
I decided to go for Maghda after all, since I'd made it so close. I had the same skill set up as the butcher, but I'd switched out my bash for Cleave (Rupture Rune). I'd been using this for general area clearing, but it was also a decent choice imo to take care of Maghda's thralls. Fight was fairly straight forward again. I'd try to group the thralls in places where I could hit most of them with one cleave to get rid of them fast. Some healing potions took care of health, and I leaped out when needed. When the thralls were dead and Maghda was vulnerable, I'd slam her with Hammer of the Ancients to good effect. My stats for this fight were...

Stats for Maghda at Level 17
Str: 104          Dodge Chance: 2.6%
Dex: 26           Damage Reduction: 32.05%
Int:24             All Resist: 2
Vit: 112          Max Life: 1224
Armor: 401      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 56.10      Crit Damage: +100%

I didn't get any nice drops from her, although she did drop my first gem of the game. An amethyst, no less, so I'll have something useful to toss in my helm. I still need to improve my gear a bit though, or things could easily go wrong. I'm going to go farm the road to Alcarnus a little bit before I progress any further.
***

I farmed the road to Alcarnus, slightly beyond, and the town merchants a bit until I hit 20. I was lucky enough to find a merchant selling a socketed dervish with +strength, and put a flawed ruby in that. It's upped my DPS considerably, along with my second passive slot (which I filled with weapon master). I'll need more defensive passives later instead, but for this point in the game there's really no reason not to just raise my damage and run things over I think. I got some other mild gear upgrades along the way, but nothing stellar. I think I'll call it a night and pick it up tomorrow from before Maghda. My gear's not good, but it should be good enough now - as long as I don't overextend myself.

Vikhyat followed this plan, and started again from Maghda to grab an extra level. I found myself having no problems at all at this point, as I went through the sewers, oasis, and "arcane sanctuary" before Zoltun Kulle. I picked up a few small rare upgrades along the way, both as random drops and from the merchants in town. Most impressively, the stats on Vikhyat's gear all made good sense at this point and were no longer mismatched. I also crafted myself a pair of gloves that added ~300 vitality, which was a nice boost. Maybe the key to my success was finally getting enough chipped and flawed rubies to craft that up a little. Between a good ruby in a decent two handed sword and the 15% bonus damage from my passive, I was hitting things pretty hard. I have the feeling that nothing's going to be /really/ challenging until I get to nightmare at this point, if I can get past Belial.

First though, I had to get past Kulle! And I think it's worth noting that around level 21 I switched from the Templar to the Enchantress, because her +15% Armor Buff is pretty sexy if you're going to be getting hit a lot.

Zoltun Kulle
My skills for Kulle were the same I'd been using for area clearing. Not a particularly perfect set up, but a fun one. And normal leaves lots of room open for messing with fun stuff. I had Ground Stomp (Wrenching Impact Rune) and Revenge (Vengeance is Mine Rune) in the first two slots. These skills have good synergy, because Ground Stomp draws everyone into range of the AoE while keeping you safe from damage for a decent length of time. Then revenge clears them right out - it has pretty decent damage - and fills up your health. If revenge wasn't up, I'd hit them with several Cleaves (Rupture Rune, still my primary attack). Whirlwind (Dust Devil Rune) was in my third slot, mainly so I can work on that smash 2000 items achievement, and Hammer of the Ancients (Smash) was in my 4th slot, as a decent single target attack. My secondary was still leap with Iron Impact. I'll probably change that to charge eventually, but not until 59 or whenever dreadnought is unlocked.

At any rate, I got to Kulle and didn't expect too much difficulty. My stats for this fight were...

Stats for Zoltun Kulle at Level 24
Str: 154          Dodge Chance: 3.1%
Dex: 31           Damage Reduction: 35.24%
Int: 31            All Resist: 3
Vit: 204          Max Life: 2324
Armor: 653      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 160.18    Crit Damage: +100%

The fight was actually a touch harder than I'd thought. Not /really/ hard - I didn't put any thought into it. I just ran up to Kulle and his two statues and hit cleave a whole bunch. But they got me low on life a few times. Those statues hit harder than I was expecting. The fight went well though, and I won. Nothing of note dropped. There was a rare chest I ended up equipping, because if I traded my current chest for it and my current belt for another blue belt I ended up gaining 2 damage and 20 hp or something. So I guess I got a usable drop at least.

The stat difference between this point and just a bit earlier at Maghda was pretty impressive to me. I almost tripled my DPS, and almost doubled my vitality. The question now was if I felt comfortable with Belial or not.... Also, the question of what skills to use for Belial popped up. I kind of wanted to avoid earthquake on this character "just 'cause", but that 2000% damage is huge - especially when you have a hard hitting two handed weapon to base it on. For big bosses who like to sit still and not move, it just gets better, so it's pretty hard to argue against taking it.


Belial
Vikhyat ended up running straight for Belial instead of leveling more - there was a town that needed saving, after all. I changed up my skills for this fight. Ground Stomp (Wrenching Impact Rune) and Revenge (Vengeance is Mine Rune) remained on my first two keys. I figured they'd be awesome for clearing the adds. I switched Battle Rage in for Whirlwind though, and I put in Earthquake (Giant's Stride Rune) in my fourth slot. I was unsure if I wanted Feel no Pain or Battle Rage. I decided on Battle Rage because I could keep it up always, and a shorter fight would be better for me. I settled on Earthquake because having a skill do >2000% damage to an enemy that doesn't move is... yeah. I kept Cleave (Rupture) and Leap (Iron Impact).

I made a mistake here in retrospect. Ground Stomp wasn't needed at all for the snakes, as cleave handled them really fast. And it didn't work on Belial in his final form (As opposed to the Butcher, where it was handy). It helped a touch on the second form, but something better could have gone in. Even just swapping in Bash so I had a better attack on Belial (Or Hammer of the Ancients, so I had a good Fury Spender on Earthquake down time) would have been good. I probably didn't need revenge either, but I wanted to have the opportunity for extra healing to play it safe. I don't really regret keeping that skill. My stats for this fight were...

Stats for Belial at Level 25
Str: 164          Dodge Chance: 3.2%
Dex: 32           Damage Reduction: 35.63%
Int: 32            All Resist: 3
Vit: 208          Max Life: 2371
Armor: 692      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 166.43    Crit Damage: +100%

Above regrets aside, the fight went very well. I was able to avoid (most) of his attacks, the snakes popped when I breathed in their direction, and that was that. He didn't drop anything usable though.



Act Three
Act three opened smoothly, with me running through the first few quests and larder until I reached Ghom.

Ghom
Nothing of note happened, and I had no problems at all, so I figured I'd run into Ghom. For skills I had Ground Stomp (which worked to stun him), Revenge, Battle Rage (Marauder's Rage Rune), Earthquake, Cleave, and Leap. Same runes as always, apart from Battle Rage which just opened up the new one for +30% damage. I wasn't using this questing but, as with Belial, I swapped it in here. My stats for this fight were....

Stats for Ghom at Level 27
Str: 212          Dodge Chance: 3.4%
Dex: 34           Damage Reduction: 35.9%
Int: 63            All Resist: 6
Vit: 215          Max Life: 2455
Armor: 756      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 196.69    Crit Damage: +100%

This fight was... hard. Seriously. I was shocked, since it had never been tough for me before, much less on normal. I don't know if it's because I was undergeared, or because of the patch changes to him (I didn't actually recall what they changed... I think I'll go look that up now, since I'm curious). His gas cloud did a lot of damage to me though, at least it was taking big chunks out of my 2455 bulb. I found myself running around the room a lot, as opposed to previous characters that would just run up and kill him. He got cleared though, and dropped some rare gloves that were a slight upgrade on mine. A touch more vit and str, along with 7% magic find. So yay!


Siegebreaker Assault Beast
After clearing Ghom, Vikhyat boldly ran ahead through the Rakis crossing and got to the Siegebreaker Beast. On the way, I noticed that my weapon was starting to get on the low side (which makes sense, it's still the Lv 15 Dervish I got in Act 2). It wasn't too bad, but I think I'm due for some farming before going down the tower and to Azmodan. I could use some more HP too. Or just random gem upgrades wouldn't hurt. I think I can craft a weapon in just a few levels, if I don't find one, so I'll be doing a little bit of farming soon.

For the Siegebreaker Assault Beast, my skills were Ground Stomp (works), Revenge, War Cry (a reminder: it's armor bonus isn't shown in the listed stats below), Earthquake, Cleave (which I should have swapped out to Bash), and Leap. My stats for this fight were...

Stats for The Siegebreaker Assault Beast at Level 28
Str: 265          Dodge Chance: 3.5%
Dex: 35           Damage Reduction: 36.65%
Int: 90            All Resist: 9
Vit: 252          Max Life: 2581
Armor: 810      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 216.49    Crit Damage: +100%

The fight wasn't really tough, since he doesn't hit that hard on normal. It definitely took me longer than usual, but I got through it without any worries. He didn't drop anything of use and, like I said, I'm feeling pretty undergeared, so I'm going to go run the Rakis crossing two or three times and see what comes of it.
***

Some brief area running and crafting paid off. I was able to replace my old sword with a new great axe once I hit 29 and could craft that. It's still just a regular blue, but I'm getting roughly 60 more DPS now, along with a few hundred vitality it had tacked on. Not amazing, but a definite upgrade. I crafted some rare shoulders that were another small upgrade. I could craft better shoulder, but want to try and save some of my crafting mats for later in case I need them in Act 4. I did craft a blue body that added more HP though, so now I feel a bit more durable. One more level and I get my third passive slot, so I probably want to hit 30 before Azmodan. I'm sure I'll get it just in the course of going down that tower though, so I probably won't have to rerun anything for that specifically.

Cydaea
After getting through the tower a faster than expected, Vikhyat found himself inside the chamber of the seductive spider (Side note- found a real spider last night. Very not seductive. Thank god I killed it before it got away). Hit 30 on the way down though, so I got that last passive slot. I put Nerves of Steel in there, since that increased my defense more than Tough as Nails. Superstition is a good passive, but there's not a ton of non-physical damage I'm worried about in Normal. I'll probably swap one of my attack skills out for it in Hell should I get there. For Cydaea herself, I just kept my area clearing skills (Ground Stomp, Revenge, Whirlwind, Earthquake). My stats for this fight were...

Stats for Cydaea at Level 30
Str: 272            Dodge Chance: 3.7%
Dex: 37             Damage Reduction: 47.83%
Int: 126            All Resist: 13
Vit: 400            Max Life: 4488
Armor: 1375      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 287.84      Crit Damage: +100%

So, statwise, not bad. Since 28 I almost doubled my vitality and life, and my armor shot up a lot too. Little DPS bump too. The fight itself was incredibly fast. Nothing of note dropped, so onwards to Azmodan.

Azmodan
So I was feeling pretty confident at this point, and didn't bother changing skills from my area clearing ones for Azmodan despite the fact that a better set up was available. My stats were the same as for Cydaea, except for my DPS which increased every so slightly thanks to my enchantress turning 30 and picking up her +3% Attack Speed Aura.

Stats for Azmodan at Level 30
Str: 272            Dodge Chance: 3.7%
Dex: 37             Damage Reduction: 47.83%
Int: 126            All Resist: 13
Vit: 400            Max Life: 4488
Armor: 1375      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 296.47      Crit Damage: +100%

The fight was straight forward. Just run in, hit him till I could pop earthquake, hit him some more, then run out when the puddles came and avoid those till they vanished. Then I hit him some more again, and he went pop. No drops that were usable, but that's ok. Time to go see if we can get Tyrael out of his serious depression. I feel bad for him, he used to be such a fun loving guy. Let's see if we can bring that back.



Act Four
Iskatu
Well. This hardly deserves a write up, but for the sake of being complete... same skills as Azmodan, and exact same stats. Ran up, aoed a bit, and that was that.

Rakanoth
Yep. Same skills, same stats, same results. Hammer time. He did a bit of damage to me, so it was handy to have revenge up to keep my health filled. No drops I could use.

Izual
Here we had a fight that was a bit more serious. I kept the same basic skills as before, but took the time to swap in Wrath of the Berzerker so I'd have something to free me from freeze if I got stuck in a bad spot (and, also, to get some extra damage - although the extra damage isn't huge until you can rune it). My other skills were the same as before. My stats for this fight were...

Stats for Izual at Level 31
Str: 275            Dodge Chance: 3.8%
Dex: 38             Damage Reduction: 47.12%
Int: 127            All Resist: 13
Vit: 402            Max Life: 4514
Armor: 1381      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 298.86      Crit Damage: +100%

The fight went pretty well. I burned down the first half of his health quickly with earthquake. The second half of the fight took longer, but he never did enough damage to make me really worry. I popped Wrath of the Berzerker when he used his freeze so I could ignore it, and just stood there until I won. Pretty much I didn't even pay attention to the adds. Sloppy, but it worked.


Diablo
Vikhyat had made it to the pinnacle of the Spire of Heaven, and the ultimate test had come. On his way up, he'd stumbled on a neat rare nodachi dropped by a fallen angel (screen shot forthcoming, if I managed to get it taken properly...) I didn't want to loose here, so I took the time to rearrange skills a little. My passives stayed the same, but for my active skills I chose...

Wrath of the Berserker: Having an ability that prevents you from getting caged, while allowing you to deal some extra damage, is nice.

Revenge (Vengeance is Mine): Extra 8% heals, with decent damage. Always nice.

Ignore Pain (Iron Hide): Lets you ignore a lot of damage for 7 seconds. Not bad if you want to make sure you live.

Earthquake (Giant's Stride): Awesome damage, if you can get diablo to stay put. He usually obliges.

Bash (Onslaught): Decent damage gury generator/primary attack. I might try frenzy later, but it really takes a decent amount of time to get up to 5 stacks with a two handed weapon...

Leap (Iron Impact): Again, having one skill to get you from A to B super fast is priceless. Having it increase your armor a ton in the process is just icing.

My stats for this fight were very close to the following (I checked stats after, but had actually leveled up to 32 unexpectedly on completion - I was able to subtract the listed gains from the base stats, so those are correct. And I checked my DPS beforehand, but Armor/Dodge/Damage Reduction/etc might be just a /tiny/ bit off).

Stats for Diablo at Level 31
Str: 275            Dodge Chance: 5.7%            *My DPS listed is /without/ the Enchantress Buff here. 
Dex: 56             Damage Reduction: 47.00%           
Int: 127            All Resist: 13
Vit: 430            Max Life: 4843
Armor: 1419      Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 312.5*      Crit Damage: +100%

The fight didn't go badly. It was a touch sloppy, mostly because I was trying to take screen shots (which may or may not have worked). I didn't have enough DPS to kill diablo quickly, but it did get him down by and by. I had no problem taking out my "shadow barbarian" on the other hand. I got him stuck in earthquake for almost all 8 seconds once. The second time he walked out after 2 or 3. I messed up popping Wrath at good times but, again, that's because of screen shot efforts.

Pretty straightforward though. Run in, bash him, try to run out of his fire circle attack or at least keep up Ignore Pain if I was going to be in it/around him. Wrath of the Berzerker popped at appropriate times helped out (and could have helped more if done well). Other than paying more attention or farming a lot (not worth it this early in the game, imo), I don't think I could really have done things much better.

But anyways, that's normal! Vikhyat had made it through in one piece, and was on his way to Nightmare for greater challenges.

[Shagsbeard]

Personal take is that you're playing too quickly... for me anyway. My HC deaths typically come from being bored of playing and getting sloppy.

[SnickerSnack]

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but you hide things with {SPOILER}{/SPOILER}, but with [] instead of {}.

Also, you should bump this thread from time to time. Major updates should be bumped up; otherwise, how will we know when you post?

Edit: Also, maybe it's just me, but I think a screenshot of "Solid Two Handed Sword" would have been appropriate. Pictures of major finds (for this character) would make it more enjoyable to read.

Another Edit: You should probably use {CODE}{/CODE} (again, [] not {}) for the stats, like this:

Spoiler

Str: 35          Damage Reduction: 29.08%
Dex: 2           Dodge Chance: 2%
Int: 15          All Resist: 2
Vit: 23          Max Life: 298
Arm: 164
DPS: 17.09

[BaronScarpia]

Very interesting. I will certainly use your tales in future quests. You mention your level in the middle of the text, but couldn't you put it in the middle of your stats. I don't know if I will play a self-found barb or a self-found HC barb in the near future. Info will help a lot! Thanks for sharing!

[Valeli]

Thanks guys. This is a really dumb question, but how do i take screen shots in D3, and where do they get saved to? Too bad I don't still have that sword - you're right, it would have been a good shot :x Thanks for the spoiler info too, I'll go in and use that later to make this look (I hope) much shorter.

Agree I was going a bit fast. I'll certainly be slowing it down in the near future. I'm generally more rushy at the start and in normal than later on, since I'm not loosing out on much if I happen to get killed in normal (although I still don't want that to happen!)

Maybe I will bump it if something neat happens... maybe I should also just insert a :: Last Edited on x/y/z :: up top, to let people know quickly though.

[muzzz]

Take screenshots with Print Screen, I think. Mine end up in C:\Users\username\Documents\Diablo III\Screenshots

[Valeli]

Nightmare:
Act One
The Fallen Star is Near! If it's no problem with anyone, I think I decided I'll bump this for each difficulty level (just to keep the first post from becoming ungodly long). Normal went quite well, but that's not really impressive. Challenges should start piling up a little bit now in night mare, as champions become a bit tougher, get the chance for nasty arcane affixes, and have a slim but real chance of pulling a genuinely unfun affix combo. Nightmare is certainly going to go a bit slower, but I'm confident Vikhyat can keep pressing forwards inch by inch. A good barbarian is nothing if not stubborn, after all...


The Skeleton King: At level 34, Vikhyat found himself entertaining an odd sense of deja vu as he went down the dark depths of yet another ancient cathedral near the town of Tristram. Gear wise, I picked up a few small upgrades off of random champions, and again a few little purchases from the merchants (don't ignore them if you're playing self found, they seem to be pretty helpful for the first half of the game at least). I didn't have a new weapon, and was killing a bit slow, but felt pretty confident that even if I couldn't kill him fast he certainly couldn't drop me either, so I went in.

For skills I had the same passives as always, and the same area clearing skills as always (Ground Stomp, Revenge, Whirlwind, Earthquake, Cleave, Leap). My stats for this fight were...

Stats for The Skeleton King at Level 34
Str: 380          Dodge Chance: 5.9%
Dex: 59           Damage Reduction: 50.18%
Int:88             All Resist: 9
Vit: 537           Max Life: 5983
Armor: 1712     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 443.41     Crit Damage: +100%

I tried to pay a little more attention to the fight than I had on normal. He still hit pretty hard if you got caught in his tripple swing. Leap got me out of places quickly though (or into place with a large armor bonus). Ground Stomp's stun was helpful at stopping his tripple attacks too if I couldn't get away well any other way. Whirlwind was, obviously, useless. I just kept it. The fight went fine, and I won. I feel I need a better weapon though. I might farm the cathedral some and see if I have any luck. Maybe. I'm not sure how far I want to go without an upgrade there.


The Spider Queen: At level 36, it was time to take on Aranae again. Vikhyat was pretty aware of his weapon lacking badly (at least compared to an AH one, which would have been much much better). It was taking some time to kill things. Apart from a few champion packs though, nothing was causing the sort of damage to my health bulb that would be a cause for concern though, so instead of farming around forever hoping a weapon dropped I decided to move on. Getting to the spider queen from Wortham was pretty easy, and I had no troubles with that (although I took extra care to move a touch slowly and not trigger large pulls).

For skills I had the same passives as always. Instead of the same area clearing skills as always though, I replaced Whirlwind with Call of the Ancients (The Council Rises Rune). I just needed some extra damage to speed up my killing speed, and this seemed like a good place to get it without much thinking. It was on a long timer, as was earth quake, so I could use one of these to help burn her to the first run away and then the second ability to burn her down a second time.

(Ground Stomp, Revenge, Whirlwind, Earthquake, Cleave, and Leap were my other skills, as always).

Hmm. I just realized I can probably do one of those build/links instead of explaining my skills and runes. I need to start doing that from now on. Will be easier for everyone.

Stats for The Spider Queen at Level 36
Str: 434          Dodge Chance: 6.1%
Dex: 61           Damage Reduction: 50.47%
Int: 123           All Resist: 12
Vit: 561           Max Life: 6923
Armor: 1834     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 513.51     Crit Damage: +100%

This fight went by the plan. I just hit her with cleave until she ran away the first time, and then cleaved the little adds quickly. When she came back I used Call of the Ancients plus Cleave which made her run away a good deal faster, and for the third time I used Earthquake instead of Call of the Ancients. It took a time to damage her without Call or Earthquake, but it worked out fine.


The Jailer: Hah, bet you thought I'd forget this little guy again, huh?

Well, by level 37, Vikhyat had made his way through Leoric's Manor, and been asked to kill the demon jalier by a friendly ghost. Happy to oblige, he set about his work.

For skills I was using... My stats for this fight were...

Stats for The Jailer at Level 37
Str: 437          Dodge Chance: 10.1%
Dex: 105          Damage Reduction: 50.01%
Int:163            All Resist: 16
Vit: 562           Max Life: 7552
Armor: 1851     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 516.40     Crit Damage: +100%

The fight was simple and went really well. I started with full fury from the random stuff I'd been killing, so I just did ground stomp to lock people in place, earthquake, and call of the ancients at the start. I burned him down really really fast, even with my awful weapon.


The Butcher: Vikhyat was still just 37, still had the same bad gear, and probably would have stopped just short of the Butcher to do some area running for crafting mats/lucky drops. However, he found something even more fortunate - a protection shrine /right/ by the entrance to the butchers room. An extra 25% Damage Reduction was nothing to sneeze at, and probably better than any piece of gear or two he could cobble together, so he grabbed the shrine and went right on in.

For skills I was still using. I should have swapped out cleave probably, but wasn't thinking of it at the time since I was more concerned with getting in with as much of my protection timer up as possible. My stats for this fight were...

Stats for The Butcher at Level 37
Str: 437          Dodge Chance: 10.1%
Dex: 105          Damage Reduction: 50.01%
Int:163            All Resist: 16
Vit: 562           Max Life: 7552
Armor: 1851     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 516.40     Crit Damage: +100%

The fight was kind of tough, although I was never in an "oh god, I'm gonna die" moment. The two healing wells plus periodic potion use ensured my health stayed ok, and I never let it get too low. I basically ran to him as much as possible so as to not let him run into/slam me. I'd use earthquake and call of the ancients whenever possible (trying to stun with ground stomp always for earthquake). If the floor grew hot I'd leap out. Or run out. I did a lot of running out, since I was also liberally using leap for it's large armor bonus. Running circles around him, I could probably have recharged the wells for a long time. As it was, I just needed the two wells once each (and probably could have done with less.... always better safe than sorry though). Anyway - despite taking a long time, I managed to win and move on to act two.

It's my sincere hope that I can merchant buy a better weapon there, if I don't find one.



Act Two
Act two started out pretty smoothly for Vikhyat. I was able to get some cheapish gear upgrades by shopping the merchants a few times (replace most of my yellow rares with blues), and even got a slightly better weapon. Once I headed out of town, I had an even better (slightly) axe drop just before the Khasim Outpost. My gear was nothing to be proud of, but other than an occasional plagued/molten pack I didn't see any fast HP drops to make me nervous, and I killed "reasonably" fast.

I think - around this point in the game at least - crafting isn't the most efficient way to get gear upgrades. At the start it's better than most you can shop, and in the end it gives you a slim chance at a nice roll, but I'm feeling that (broadly speaking) in mid nightmare now, my cash and time is probably better spent farming mobs for drops or shopping the merchants in town. Later in the act, the merchants will probably drop off in usefulness. But unless you have a nice rare you can craft for a level you just came into, it's hard to upgrade without luck. And I didn't have too many relevant rares to craft around this level.

Maghda: Vikhyat made good speed through the early part of Act 2, and reached Maghda without any serious problems. Some of the problems I was encountering came from the types of mobs that are Maghda's thralls though (they can hit hard, if you don't get out of the way or kill them first), so I went in with a bit of caution.

For skills I was using. This was basically the same set up as previously, but I had a slightly better rune on Earthquake now to get rid of it's fury cost and decrease it's recast timer. My stats for this fight were...

Stats for The Maghda at Level 39
Str: 447          Dodge Chance: 12.1%
Dex: 183          Damage Reduction: 52.04%
Int: 132           All Resist: 13
Vit: 653           Max Life: 10,267
Armor: 2116     Crit Chance: 20%
DPS: 597.66     Crit Damage: +100%

The fight wasn't really tough, but I took a slightly different approach. Instead of using earthquake on Maghda, who couldn't do much damage to me at all, I saved it to burn down her thralls quickly (who could do damage to me). I killed the first group with cleave, since there weren't many. The second one I burned down super fast with earthquake. The third group of thralls I used Call of the Ancients to help burn down, and then the ancients helped me finish off Maghda too.

I know Wrath of the Berserker is more popular than Call of the Ancients. I'll probably end up switching to it... I'll need to reconsider build stuff more seriously later. At this point in the game though, Earthquake on its own is more than sufficient to burn down most anything, and the bonus damage from WoTB would be wasted. Getting out of binds with WoTB is, of course, priceless though...

Anyways, the fight went well and Vikhyat was ready to move on.


Zoltun Kulle: Vikhyat had no real trouble getting from Maghda to Kulle, although it took a fair bit of time. Still, I found some usable drops along the way. I was a little nervous going though, in since he'd given me more trouble than I expected on normal. The big difference here is that I had earth quake and call of the ancients set up though - I was hoping those two could get rid of his statues fast and, since they were the only problem on normal, it would be easy going afterwards.

For skills I was using. I finally ended up switching out the weapon master passive for a defensive one (superstition). I made the choice for superstition over the damage passive because I had picked up a might weapon that increased my damage, but weapon master was fairly useless on that weapon (+3 fury per hit for a build that barely touches fury... impressive, right?). I chose superstition specifically because I'd actually been having some problem with the poison spitting stuff in the two caverns in the desolate sands. I have no all resist to speak of, so a free 20% mitigation on stuff like that is pretty handy. My stats for the fight were...

Stats for Zoltun Kulle at Level 43
Str: 567          Dodge Chance: 12.0%
Dex: 180          Damage Reduction: 52.61%
Int: 136           All Resist: 14
Vit: 709           Max Life: 14,267
Armor: 2387     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 774.15     Crit Damage: +100%

The fight was easier than normal. I used earthquake and call of the ancients to quickly kill both statues, and then I just handled Kulle myself. I'm sure he becomes dangerous in Inferno and, maybe, hell. He was no problem here though.

So now I'm up to Belial... I don't feel ready though. I feel like I need more HP. And damage. And resists... Probably I can walk in and do it fine just avoiding his attacks, but I'm far enough in now I don't really want to risk it. I think I might farm a little bit and/or gain a level before I try for him.



Belial: This time, Vikhyat decided Caldeum's need for saving wasn't quite so pressing, so he went on a bit of a farming/leveling spree before Belial. What spurred this was treasure goblins. You see - I had discovered that I was no longer able to kill treasure goblins before the escaped without getting them stuck in earthquake, and this was a sure sign my DPS was horrible. I knew I was the right "level" for Belial, but my gear was also terrible. For better gear I had two choices - I could try and find a really lucky drop, or grind up to 45 when I could craft a rare nagamaki. Not finding any rare drops, the second choice is what I took.

At 45 I did manage to craft an "ok" nagamaki. It had a bunch of Vitality on it, and some holy damage, although the second stat was just intelligence. Still, it was good enough for my purposes and managed to raise my DPS around 400 on it's own. Not half bad. I also was able to craft a rare helmet that was a slight improvement on my old one.

For skills I was using... I kept cleave because I wanted something to deal with all the serpents. Leap provided nice armor bonus and a great way to get out of trouble, as always. I switched ground stomp out for Ignorance is Bliss since I learned I couldn't stun Belial on normal. I picked the rune to give me healing because more healing is always good. This didn't turn out to be too helpful though, because my DPS was weak enough the leach over 5 seconds was practically nothing. The 7 second duration rune would have been better. Still, 65% Damage Reduction for 5 seconds beat a useless ground stomp. As in normal I swapped in Battle Rage, this time with the rune letting it increase damage by 30%. Was a handy ability. My stats for the fight were...

Stats for Belial at Level 45
Str: 495           Dodge Chance: 12.0%
Dex: 182          Damage Reduction: 52.13%
Int: 196           All Resist: 20 (36 Arcane)
Vit: 782           Max Life: 17,442
Armor: 2450     Crit Chance: 10%
DPS: 1157.2     Crit Damage: +100%

The fight went pretty well. I got hit a bit more than I'd have liked in the final phase. Nothing that got me low on life in NM, but it could be a problem in hell or Inferno if I don't play it better. The adds died really fast in early phases since I was overleveled... Belial still took a long time to kill with my poor DPS though. I can only imagine how long it would have been with my earlier weapon if I hadn't waited. I feel bad going into fights overleveled like this, but I really just had to get a better weapon.



Act Three