Never mind. Some fiddling around with where I was standing made it work. Any predictions as to how often Diablo kills me?
About two dozen. Then you’ll figure out how to fight him.
(Hint: Learn when the pink lightning is about to start, and pump your fire and lightning resistances.)
I’m getting annoyed with mine. I love (and need) the tons and tons of damage it does, I love the fire damage (for those physical immunes) I love the speed of the thing…but I hate the fact that it’s made out of tissue paper. If it gets a stern look, it breaks. It’s not expensive to repair, but I have to go back to town every 5 minutes to take care of it. I can’t even make a Pit run with it without a repair. In Nightmare! In Hell, it’s even worse.
Any suggestions for a better sword? I need a ton of damage (most important factor–when I’m being swarmed I need to take monsters down fast), good speed and it has to do elemental damage of some sort or other. Any suggestions?
Btw–how rare are “VEX” runes? I got an IST from my hellforge quest and so I only need a Vex (and a really good 6 socket sword…Um…6 sockets? do they MAKE six socket swords?) to build a “Silence” which looks like it would rock.
I’ve never even seen a Vex rune. good Luck!
Punha, I knew right after I hit the submit button that the belt would be better for Who and his javazon. I’ve been thinking about starting up a stab-a-zon myself. Probably spear skills. I have a really nice impaler and a balrog spear that I can’t remember the name of (unique) that would rock the casba. If Who wants the balrog I’ll let him hold it for me till I actually do it 
Hm. Did you all know that you can buy runes on eBay??
For a USEast Ladder VEX rune, the going rate is about $20.00
They say they’ll mail you a userid/pw to a mule account.
Weird. Whodathunkit?
Yeah, you can buy almost anything on ebay…
MDSL, I already have the Demon’s Arch Balrog spear… and I use the Titans instead due to the plusses… the spear is in my backup slot though.
Fenris, when I get a chance to get on for a bit with a group like last night, I have 4 characters in hell that all need the soulstone quest, although at least one has to get rushed to Act4 to get there (2, I know are in Act5). It’s possible (although not likely) to find a vex that way. Now if we get a zod with one… check out the “Breath of the Dying” runeword…
Oh! The easiest way to get a 6 socket anything is to find an elite white weapon that can get 6 sockets and get whathisname in Act5 to socket it, he always will add the most sockets possible to normal (unmagic) items.
Damn, forgot to add… a colossus blade (not colossus sword) is the only sword that can get 6 sockets. And remember it’s a two handed weapon.
Hmm…what’s the best one handed weapon that can get 6 sockets? I gotta have a 1 handed weapon.
Also any other weapon suggestions? My pally kicks butt (although he (apparently) needs better resists but his attack without Djinn is so-so.
Hah! Got him first try.
Well, I ran away. A lot. Over and over again. But in the end, he died, and I never did. That doom mage seal boss guy got me once though.
A Phase blade can have 6 sockets. A friend of mine made a legit Silence before the Ith craze.
I still have Hell forge to do for two of my chars and my asn needs to get there to do hers. I think she’s in a1 or so of hell.
Lastly, Fen, I would use a mace rather than a sword because of the +dmg undead and the +IAS for a paladin. Didn’t I already send you a +2 pal one with good damage? Just use conv/vengeance or something similar for PIs. I also have a psn charm or two you can have if you need them, since my guy is doing ok with damage.
Oh. Gorsnak, the doom mage seal boss guy is Lord Deseis. I’m sure you can imagine several of his nicknames, both from frequent sufferers and frequent conquerors. Let us say that he rarely does anything of note to my characters.
The only thing that DeSeis and his ilk can do to me is Iron Maiden. Bastards have started casting that while my barb is whirl-winding so that I die as soon as I stop spinning. Bastards…
I’m always a touch surprised at how easily I kill Lord Dickless. Maybe it’s a patch thing; I recall him being harder in the four-act game and in 1.07.
Current status: EvilDeath the MA Assassin whupped Big D and didn’t even lose her merc. I got him to 5% health before I lost my Shadow. Assassin and merc now levelling freely in Act V, preparing for the Ancients. Machiavelli the pure Poison Necro is maiming his way through Act I Normal, dreaming of hitting level 19 and getting the Jade Tan Do to use.
I also found a rare long battle bow with 6-29 base damage plus *202 poison damage over 8 seconds. I’ve never seen poison damage like that before, and it only requires lvl15 to use, so I’m starting up a Bowazon to enjoy it.
MDSL, if I can run into you in game, I have several things for you to look over… Natalya’a armor and a couple of claws that I’ve been holding on to just in case you wanted them for your assasin.
I hope to have some time to get on and play this weekend. I really would like to get my necro past Act2, although he seems to be leveling well just doing the Pit.
And Fenris, what shield is your Pally using? You should be getting decent resists from a shield, my javazon has fairly poor resists although at least they’re all in the positives. Cold and fire are her worst IIRC, cold is about 10 and fire around 30 (although most of that is due to wearing Andariels Visage, which is -30% fire resist). I have a second helm (a diadem) for her if she really needs it which is +16% resist all.
Phew! Last night I finally beat NM Baal in my SP game. He wasn’t that bad with a level 69 MA assassin – indeed, I had a lot more trouble with the Ancients than with him (first met them at level 62, had to reach 68 before I stood a chance against them, and chugged down thirteen full rejuves through the battle).
Hell level is HARD! Took me ten minutes of playing and three deaths before I could advance more than half a screen outside of the first town.
What level do y’all advise before tackling hell? I’m thinking maybe I should run Baal a good half-dozen or so times before going back: his drops were really really good compared to anything else I’d seen in the game, and I could definitely use some more schwag.
Daniel
I’d really like to help out, but the only assasin I ever made was a 1.09 Trapsassin that I got bored with at about level 56.
In general terms, the only character I went straight to hell with after defeating Baal was my necromancer, and the only reason I did that was because he kicked Baal’s ass so easily. With both my zons and my sorc, I continued doing Baal runs for some time to get my synergies doing as much damage as I could and to get better equipment. And the first drop from an act boss gets a boost in 1.10. Unless you are wearing mf, you won’t get that kind of drop again unless you are very lucky.
Dang – that’s good to know, but disappointing, who. I got a lot of good things, but the only item that’ll end up being useful to this character is the Tal_Rasha helmet, and that mainly because I’ve already found the belt.
Ah well. I might do several more Baal runs and then go after Hell again. Maybe I’ll be superlucky and find a Bartuc’s.
Daniel