Hardly-Able, The nekkid throw barb

Prelude

In honor of my recent transition through the curtain, and in honor of the uber leet cracked sash, I have created (well one was created before membership, but who's counting :P) two new softcore restricted characters. Their journey through Sanctuary will the subject of future posts (or tales hosted on my site).

For starters, let me describe the builds

Hardly_Able, wearer of the ABM cracked sash:

Double-Throw Nekkid Barbarian

Restrictions: No twinking, other than the vaunted ABM cracked sash Nekkid--No visible gear EVER. Non-visible gear limited to cracked sash, and cracked/crude, etc gloves and boots. No jewelry. (the non-visible gear limitations will last at least through normal--I will attempt to keep to this throughout the game). Charms are limited to what I find on the way.

Ms. Grimreaper

No-vit, Polearm-wielding Sorcy

Restrictions: No twinking, other than fast hit recovery charms. Spells limited to pre-reqs for enchant only, cold armors, and masteries (exceptions--static limited to slvl5, teleport, eshield, and telekinesis unlimited). Primary weapon must be a polearm, but she can use +skill staves and ranged weapons on the switch. No limitations on gear, other than she may NEVER even think of equipping a shield (shields are for wimps :P).

These two are intended to clear the game--nothing may be skipped. As of today, they are both in A2 normal (tales will follow). They may party, but will likely not play with any unrestricted chars--to date, I think I've only quested with one unrestricted char.

The tales of these two will be intertwined...at least as best as my feeble writing skills can manage. Who knows--the future may hold more tales after their journey is complete. :notme:

Normal

Brief update:

Hardly_Able is starting A4 normal, having walked his way through A2 and A3 with two deaths. A2 death was to the death nova of a cold-enchanted lightning bug in one of the false tombs, and the A3 death was to the inferno of a flayer shamen (this was should have been avoided). I probably could have avoided both deaths if I had distributed any points to vit (not a restriction on this guy...I am just doing it now to up the gain).

MsGrimReaper a quest or two into A3. As to her deaths, well there have been about 5 or 6 in the last act. I really need to play her alone for a while--for some reason she lives longer when not playing with others. :blush:

I have cropped most of the shots from their journey so far--I hope to have some more storyline and shots up by Christmas. My writing muse seems to have abandoned me for the time being.

Nightmare Experiences

Well, let's just say my muse has deserted me. I have loads of screenshots, but haven't yet put them up on my site.

Hardly_Able, the nekkid throwing barb, made it to the outer cloister waypoint in nightmare yesterday. His journey through A4 and A5 normal was mostly uneventful.

The journey in nightmare has been a bit more tedious. His luck with throwing weapons has been limited to one rare war javelin and one imbued war javelin. Those are the boss, or tough pack killing weapons, while the normal pair is a balanced knife and balanced axe. His travelling companion, a prayer merc, was lucky to get a rare ethereal pike drop.

As an example of his difficulty, it took me about three hours to get from the cold plains wp to the outer cloister. No deaths since A3 normal. Being a stubborn cuss, I have yet to add any points to vitality. That will likely change soon, as Hardly goes into hit recovery from a strong wind. His one relation to no-twink (other than his uber cracked sash) is a personal mule, which is used to store his crafting supplies (I plan to craft blood throwing axes for him when I get my hands on some exceptional magic ones).

One last note, Normal Baal dropped some completely useless items for Hardly--a Dwarf Star and a Kuko.

Nightmarish Experiences

Time for another update.

Hardly_Able finished (except for that traitorous Nihlathak) his nightmare quests last evening. His entire journey through nightmare was either solo, or partied with ShadowHM's no-skills daggerzon, InspiredHope (one exception, I think I was partied for Andy with another variant scum).

I'd love to say I proceeded with no deaths, but that was not the case. If I remember correctly, there were two deaths in A1, one in A2, two (one when body recovering) in A3, none in A4 and one in A5. I was not exactly keeping track, though. Body was recovered each time. Act 1 stared out tough, until I crafted a blood hurbat (exceptional axe). Another was crafted in A3 or A4. I hired a might merc in A2, to further improve damage.

The entire journey was extremely slow, even when Shadow and I partied. Grimward and taunt were used extensively, with Hardly puting up grimwards to establish safe retreat zones. Another nice merc weapon was found--this time a rare lance that got a perfect skull for [i]some[/i] leech. All and all, Haseen faired pretty well until A5, and even then the only time he'd take a quick dirt nap was when encountering large groups of archers, witches, and/or frenzytaurs.

And now on to the tale of the last part of Hardly_Able's journey through nightmare.

Before the finale last evening, Hardly had already travelled with InspiredHope to best the ancients and make his way to the waypoint on the second level of the Worldstone Keep. Being a stubborn sort, Hardly was unable to proceed to Baal without besting the Ancients again, solo. He knew this task would be difficult, since he had nearly run out of weapons the last time, after carrying two extra sets of war javelins. Luckily, his frequent trips to Malah's shop resulted in the purchase of several sets of cruel throwing spears, and a decent hurlbat of butchery. Hardly stepped off the waypoint in the Ancients' Way, knowing a long fight was ahead.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-ancientsway.jpg

Dark lancers, spike fiends, and tainted greeted Hardly. Not a bad draw, though the spike fiends can be difficult to spot, and the lancers move like they've each consumed three bottles of no-Doz. Thankfully, most of the bosses were not cold enchanted (the bane of Hardly). After a mostly uneventful journey, Hardly arrived at the summit, carrying a full pack and cube of throwing spears, axes, javelins, and fat purple pots.

Ah, I wish I had a shot or two of the battle. It raged all over the summit, with the ancient concentrating mostly on Hasaad. Korlic dropped first, leaving Madawc and Talic. Haseen was fed a steady diet of purple pots, as he tanked away. Madawc dropped next (that's right--who's the best thrower NOW?!), leaving Hardly with a aura enchanted (conviction), cold enchated Talic (yum). His regular whirlwinds made for some serious happy feet--and lots leaping (leap attack) to avoid the cold enchanted whirlwind. Haseen was having a hard time targeting Talic, as was Hardly. Things were starting to look a bit bleak, since Hardly ran out of pots, Haseen was down to less than 1/3 life, and spears were down to less than 20 per hand.

Hardly and Haseen decided a bit of mountain running was in order...mainly to help Haseen regain some health. After a few laps around the summit, Haseen and Hardly settled in, locked in on Talic, and poked/threw away. Hardly launched the last of his spears into Talic, but he still lived, with between an eighth and a quarter of his life left. Haseen proved his mettle once again, finishing off Talic with yet another poke from his battered lance. I think these shots tell the tale very well.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-ancients.jpg

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-noweapons.jpg

Yep. No pots, no usable weapons. Many rounds were bought for Haseen that evening. :P

Since Hardly had already cleared WSK1 and 2 in a previous game, he started on to Baal from the WSK2 waypoint. The first monster type spotted were poison throwing bone mages--no worry except for a need to run to town if Hardly gets hit--let's just say poison resistance is not exactly high. Next Hardly spots some lightning bugs, again, not too much of a problem, as long as you know how to find the sweet spot inbetween all the sparks. But of course, all is not well, as Hardly soon has packs of black souls firing lightning from all angles. Actually, the souls were not too much trouble, as taunt brings them close, where they are less likely to shoot gobs of lightning. Finally, Hardly spots the stairs, and heads to the next level of the keep. Around this time, Hardly found a fourth set of cruel throwing spears, so the pair crafted blood hurlbats were stashed for another pair of cruel throwing spears. Those would be his weapons for the rest of the evening.

On the third level of the keep, Hardly was greeted by teleporting, fire-shooting rascals/tricksters, which are more annoying than dangerous. However, he soon spotted scores of dumb knights, which meant that their ever dangerous handlers, the oblivion knights, would be right behind. The remainder of the level was spent herding the dumb knights away from their oblivion bosses, or teleporting back to town to wipe the IM curse off Haseen, or trying to quickly dispatch the OKs before they could lay down curses. The worst stretch I can remember was two OK boss packs with another pack of two OKs and their dumb cronies. Lots of happy feet, a few trips to town, and one dirt nap by Haseen, and the level cleared.

Hardly_Able stepped down to the Baal's Throne of Destuction. Slightly down the corridor from the first turn, he's greeted with a cold-enchanted boss pack of Frenzytaurs (Death Lords). Within a few seconds, Haseen takes a dirt nap and Hardly is on the run. It took a few minutes to string out the pack enought so that Hasaad could tank the remainder (including the boss) while Hardly launched spear after spear into the mob. After a minute or two, the mob was gone, and the entrance to the level secured. The rest of the Thone was no picnic: more Death Lords, vampires (Night Lords), and more dumb knights and their cursing oblivion knight handlers. The most notable of the remaining struggle to clear the Throne was in the southwest corner, which was populated with champion oblivion knights, a pack of frenzytaurs, and a vampire boss pack.

Finally, Hardly entered Baal's throne room, dispatched the few remaining vampires and knights, and prepared Haseen and himself for the onslought of the minions. Colenzo fell quickly, but Achmel's bunch presented some tricky positioning problems. Hardly had to find a way to lob spears at Achmel and his minions, while avoiding the slowing ice bolts of the mages. He was able to take out all but two before the mages put the freeze on, which was enought to gain the battlefield and win the day.

The remaining minions did not fall as easily. Bartuc, rang up aura enchanted (conviction), which resulted in Haseen taking his dirt nap five seconds after the spawn. Hardly let him rest for a bit, while taunting Bartuc's minions out of the throne room for their acupuncture treatments. Only after Bartuc lay dead did Hardly return to Harrogath to retreive his longtime companion. Ventar and his pack forced Hardly and Haseen out of the throne, but a few tactical maneuvers (aka running away) thinned the pack and allowed Hardly to control the battle. Finally, it was time for Lister, who run up lightning enchanted. Although a difficult fight, for once Lister's minions managed to string out enough to allow Hardly and Haseen to concentrate on one or two at a time. In normal, Hardly couldn't break up the pack, and the fight took considerably longer. That's not to say that Hardly wasn't pushed bact to the stairs, just that it only happened once :P.

On to Baal. Hardly leveled to 65 as Lister crumbled, so here are Hardly_Able's particulars entering the fight with Baal:

First, his best weapon, and stats shown before BO and his Haseen's might aura.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-stats1.jpg

Next, his actual in-battle stats, boosted by battle command, battle orders, and Haseen's might aura (actually took the shot after Baal, but none of the stats changed).

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-stats2.jpg

Hardly is wearing broken eth gloves and boots, a cracked circlet (haven't got a broken eth one yet, no armor, and is wielding cruel throwing spears. He's mostly stuffed with charms (which are allowed) to boost resistances and life. As you can see, he has added NO points to vitality, and sits just under 500 life with the spears (blood axes have life boost, so he WAS at about 600 life before switching to the spears exclusively).

And the battle rages on...

Baal was NOT cooperative. He kept tossing cold wedges and cloning--two things that Hardly could not handle. With no "half-freeze duration", or "cannot be frozen" gear, every cold wedge resulted in a ten or more second slowdown of his throwing. Hardly found a few sweet spots in the chamber, and one or two times actually had the opportunity to unload all of one pair of weapons into Baal. Most times, however, Baal moved, cloned, or sent a cold wedge that resulted in heavy pot consumption, or a leap out of harms way, with a regroup in Harrogath. After about 45 minutes of whittling away, Hardly could sense that Baal was about spent.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-baal.jpg

Baal ended up retreating a bit to the southeast, where one last spear caught him, and felled the mighty prime evil.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-baaldeath1.jpg

Like the reward in normal, Baal was kind enough to drop some nice gear--none of which was useful for Hardly.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-baalreward.jpg

Hardly made a few trips to town to sell most of the loot, accepted the congratulations of the denizens of Harrogath, and headed out with a new title.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-champion.jpg

Hardly will be training a bit more, but he will soon see you all in Hell

(to be continued)

Hardly_ABle's Journey Through Hell, Part 1

I wish I could regale you with a stirring tale of battle, and pictures that would show the glory of each passing moment. Alas, I am but a simple narrator, so I will dispense with the introduction and lead you straight into the battle:

Hardly_Able did not have a pleasant journey through A1. Not at all. He entered hell after training a bit in nightmare, reaching level 70 before begininng his quests in earnest. He was able to work his way through the den and the cold plains, but upon reaching Blood Raven, he hit a big Brick Wall. He and Haseen could not keep up with Blood Raven's ability to raise new minions, and so they had to abandon the battle. Certainly foreshadowing of things to come.

The Stony Field and Underground Passage were extremely noteworthy. Not to say that all was easy, but Hardly was able to taunt and toss his way through the denizens. When he stepped into the Dark Woods, however, things were about to change. I wish I had taken shots of the the five boss packs that were packed into the Western half of the map. All of them were either quill rat cousins, or skeleton archers. One of them was physical immune, so let me digress a bit on Hardly handles physical immunes.

The PI problem is solved pretty much the same way Hardly solves all his problems...shop something good from Malah. Hardly bought a pair of arcing weapons in A5 nm, so when PIs show up, Hardly ports back to town, grabs his arcing weapons, and heads back into the fray.

The other tactical thing about Hardly is the use of his most important skill--Taunt. This is without doubt the skill without which Hardly would have stopped halfway through nightmare. Below you can see how the lay of the land and taunt can make a mean bosspack of skeleton archers manageable.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-darkwoodboss.jpg

That's right, taunt out all the minions, slay them one at a time, then off the boss. Rinse and repeat. After about 20 minutes to taunt his way though the western end of the Dark Wood, Hardly meets up with Treehead Woodfist, which was actually not much of a battle. The pack did not all rush at Haseen and Hardly, so they were dispatched in twos and threes. Cain's rescue was not very difficult, and now Hardly could again listen to the old coot's stories.

Hardly ended his journey for the moment, knowing that for some reason the denizens of the Dark Wood would return in new forms when he returned via the waypoint. No matter--the rescue of Cain called for some ale and rest.

When Hardly returned to the Dark Wood--he found that this time the Eastern section was rife with bosses. No less than five boss packs were roaming the Eastern Dark Wood, and this time many were enchanted with holy freeze. As an aside, let me say again cold is Hardly's worst nightmare. Anything that slows the missiles means that Hardly is in trouble. Here's one of the bosses that Hardly faced.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-darkwoodboss2.jpg

Extra fast corrupted rogues means that Hardly has to get Haseen to lock onto the pack, or run away...if one of those lovely gals stops to give Hardly a smooch, well, let's just say he falls easily :P. Yet another of the quill rat bosses ends the parade for the evening in the Dark Wood.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-darkwoodboss3.jpg

Yeah, positioning in the sweet spot (and good tanking by Haseen) is needed to avoid those nasty double enchanted sparks. Hardly also took care to stay out of range of the aura, so he could chuck at will.

Now on to the Black Marsh, and most importantly, the Forgotten Tower, home of physically immue ghosts, and highly phyically resistant Goatmen, as well as archers galore. Hardly was fortunate to travel with a regular companion, InspiredHope (no skills daggerzon). Neither of the two companions managed to take any pictures of the trip, but they both managed to make their way through a two boss (goatman and archer) stair trap on level 3 (not without deaths). Hardly finally leaped over the bosses, ran like the wind, and made it safely to level 4. From there, InspiredHope and Hardly battled their way back to clear their bodies on the third level. After such a tough trip, the countess fell with a whimper, coughing up only a measly little eld (where's that sol??).

The rest of the Marsh and Tamoe Highlands were manageable, with no great battles to note. Hardly finished up that journey with InspiredHope, and the two companions headed on their way.

Next up, the Barracks and the Jail. Hardly started this journey again with InspiredHope at his side. The two companions managed their way though throngs of devilkins and their shamen. Taunt was again their friend, though at times, some advancing to the rear was needed. The Smith fell without a fuss--more troubling was the Shamen boss located on the opposite side of the Smith's Forge. Hardly bid InspiredHope au revoir at the Jail waypoint, and returned again to the rogue's camp for some needed rest. The biggest thrill of the evening was a white flying axe that dropped in the jail. Hardly asked Charsi to imbue this nice axe, and the result was not too shabby.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-flyingaxe.jpg

Not an everyday weapon, mind you (Hardly's cruel throwing spears were higher damage), but a good change of pace, and the pmh could come in handy for an act boss.

Hardly returned to the jail, and though the going was tough, he managed to make it to the third level unscathed, even after facing off with Pitspawn Fouldog, who managed to take out Haseen a couple of times before sucumbing to multiple spearings. When Hardly got to the third level of the jail, things got bad in a hurry.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-jailpi.jpg

Though I've cut it off in the shot, that's an extra fast, magic resistant, stone skin (PI/FI) goat boss, whose minions slaughtered Haseen and Hardly within a few short seconds. Hardly grabbed the arcing weapons, re-engaged, and the pack still managed to chase him back to the stairs from the initial ambush. Nasty group. After that fiasco, Hardly made his way to the Inner Cloister, where he again met up with InspiredHope, and began the descent into the Catacombs through the Cathedral. Hardly and InspiredHope managed to make their way down though the catacombs to face Andarial...before a lousy connection forced Hardly to abandon the fight. [Note: I dropped at least a dozen times as we went down to Andy]. Finally, I couldn't get the connection back, until Shadow had left the game--after we spawned Andarial. Needless to say, I was frustrated.]

Andarial Part II

After Hardly readjusted himself to remain in Sanctuary [i.e., make sure modem is working well :P], he began again his decent to meet the demon queen Andariel. Haseen was trying his best to tank the various denizens of the catacombs, but he continued to die in his master's service. Returning him from the void was beginning to take a toll on Hardly's purse, and when the pair finally reached the final level of the catacombs...Hardly had less than 50,000 gold to his name. The two discussed tactics for the antechamber, and Andariel's lair. The antechamber would be cleared with the normal shamen taunting. After opening the door to the lair, the pair would head right, dispatch the shamen and his minions quickly, then clear out the front of the lair, hopefully killing the second shamen and his pack before the demon queen emerged.

Thankfully, the tactics worked, and all the area in the antechamber and front of the lair were cleared before the demon queen emerged. Unfortunately, that's the end of the good news for this evening. Haseen fell quickly to Andariel's poison attack, and Hardly fought on...circling the lava pit in the antechamber and tossing spears at Andariel. Unfortunately, his skill was not up to the task, as the Demon Queen pounced and felled him with but a single blow. Tonight was not to be Hardly's.

Hardly woke up face down in the rogue's camp...with but 7500 gold to his name. Somehow his belongings were placed near him, so he re-equiped his spears, and ventured to find his mule [Note: Hardly is allowed the services of a single mule--one of two exceptions to no-twink (his cracked sash is the other exception :P)] Between the two of them, they managed to scare up enough money to heal Haseen (he was ~mostly~ dead).

Haseen and Hardly looked at each other, knowing this night would be their third and perhaps final attempt to slay the Demon Queen Andariel. They stepped off the waypoint in the Catacombs, and began their journey. Not far from the waypoint, they had their first difficult fight.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/Ha-hell-cats2boss.jpg

It took Hardly about 15 minutes to dispatch this spider and its pack, and that was just the beginning. Hardly faced two cold enchanted, lightning enchated shamen bosses in a row...at one point, he was down to 7500 gold, with Haseed lying mostly dead. Luckily, Hardly had been holding onto a wand with lifetap charges, which when sold gave him enough gold to pay off Miracle Max once more, and restore Haseen to his side. That was the low point of the journey, but Hardly and Hassen managed to dispatch that last Shaman boss, nd made their way to the final showdown with Andariel. Along the way, Haseen suggested that Hardly hold onto valuable items for future sale--thus avoiding losing any money when waking up in town face down. Smart Desert Man, that Haseen.

The two exhausted companions knew without speaking what had to be done in the antechamber and the entrance to Andariel's lair...and they executed their plan perfectly. Andariel emerged. Hardly managed to keep Haseen alive for a few encounters...travelling back to town to feel Akara's healing touch. He soon realized that trying to keep Haseen in the fight was not hurting Andariel. Sadly, his desire to have his old friend with him in the moment of glory would ensure that the moment would never happen.

Hardly knew this fight would be one-on-one. He returned to town, grabbed his trusty imbued axes from Charsi, and set out to battle the Demon Queen. The battle raged through the antechamber, the lair, and sometimes even the chamber holding the stairs. Hardly was constantly on the run...keeping a few steps ahead of Andarial, so that he could turn and launch his axes and spears at the Demon Queen. Finally, he settled on a tactic of running clockwise around the lavapit in the antechamber, taking a semi-rectangular route, so that Andariel would be coming at him in a straight line at times, to simplify aiming his weapons. Over the course of the next forty minutes, Hardly kept this up..taking trips to town to replenish weapons or potions, but always returning to a hail of poision. After a few shots of her poison, the Demon Queen would resume her stalking (Hardly will never forget the sound of her foot (hoof) steps, for the rest of his days.

Slowly, Hardly could see that his tactics, and his axes and spears, were taking their toll on Andariel. He pressed the attack, trying to launch two waves of missiles her way each attack. This was not without cost, as Hardly was exposing himself more to her melee attack...and Temping Fate (tm) more than a few times. At last...Hardly threw one last spear at the hellspawn....

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-andydemise.jpg

Upon his return to the Rogues Camp, even Gheed was getting into the spirit.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-party999.jpg

A few (dozen) ales later, and Hardly_Able is ready for the next part of his journey. Time to take Haseen home to the Desert, and to Lut Gholein.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-hell-caravan.jpg