Proceed, Heroes, Into Terror's Lair! Diablo II Freestyle Group Slamdance Thread!

I won't be on during the day until Monday, at around 8pm (MDT). I'll also probably be on Saturday and Sunday after 1am if that's somehow not terribly inconvenient.

I have the gloves from the Trang-Oul set for your necro, if that interests you. I'm in UK, so arranging a time to drop it off will be awkward, but I'll do my best.

Oh yes, I'll gladly take them.

And Osso we'll figure this out. Even if I have to hand it off to someone else to hand to you, those are pretty late times for me.

Sorry for delaying the update, I was distracted for most of last week. I didn't play as much DII either, since Hell was starting to frustrate me. Frrrt has only just now beaten Act I hell.

Anyway, it's time for

The Adventures of FRRRT!, the Windy Druid, Part the Tenth - Tying Up MOO-se Ends.

So we start off with


Wait, why are we back in the Furnace of Hate? Simple! This was the one enemy that Frrrt had to run from in the entire Normal Difficulty. So how does he stack up now that Frrrt has Hurricane?


I was lucky to even get that shot, honestly. Of course a lot of it has to do with Frrrt being many, many levels higher than he would otherwise be at the end of Act III, but still, karmic justice!


Alright moving on. Back to Act I! We're off to the Stony Field!


Along the way Rakanishu drops THIS thing. It's an interesting little item for a new character I guess, but sadly it is not up for trade for reasons I'll soon get into.


Add 1 Wirt's Leg into your Horadric's Cube and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and add ground up Tome of Town Portal. Transmute for a few hours and you get...


A delicious plate of Secret Cow Level. Enjoy with a leafy salad and some red wine.


The Cow Level looks like every other field in Act I, which is a bit of a let down after the fire and brimstone of Act IV and the majestic Act V. But the Moo Moo Farm does have one unique fixture at least.


I mean besides the enemies.


The Cows all die quickly enough to Hurricane and Tornado, and drop lots of gold in item form.

I love the Moo Moo Farm. Every single foe in here is a Hell Bovine, and they all want you dead, with their warcry of 'Moo'.

I really, REALLY love the fact that they just got a one (or more?) guys to take various clips of them saying 'Moo', instead of getting a stock audio file of a real cow or something. Makes me wish you could enter the Cow Level more than once per difficulty.

But sadly that's not the case, and after your one trip here your character can't whip up any more Secret Cow Level Portals. So it SURE WOULD SUCK if you got disconnected or something while you were in the middle of clearing the level out and got screwed out of the rest of it.


Hey wait, why is the world just ending like that---

OH YOU MOTHER FU**ER

Yes.

Yes, I got disconnected in the Moo Moo Farm.

I was pissed when this happened, I had barely cleared 1/3 of it when it happened. But fortune smiled on me, and a fluke granted me a second attempt.


For the game didn't seem to save my state at any point past where I began the last session. So I Frrrt was still a Cow Level virgin for all intents and purposes.

But this meant that Hotspur was lost to the ether when it happened. Thank God it wasn't a better item.


Anyway, Take Two! No time and space shenanigans this time!


Anyway, the Cow King is the boss of this place, but aside from his Lightning Enchantedness he isn't anything special. At least not on Normal or Nightmare.

There's also a set related to the Cow King and I THINK the items can only drop in the Moo Moo Farm, though I'm not 100% positive there.


Anyway, Hurricane turns the Cow King and his cronies into ground beef, and Frrrt enjoys a nice pot of chili afterwards to fuel himself for the upcoming trip through Nightmare.


And the Cow King dropped this. In fact, Frrrt is STILL wearing it since he hasn't found anything better! Though at this point I'm tempted to try rolling a Caster Amulet, see if I can't get something decent.

And that's that! With Normal all finished up and put behind me, Nightmare is next! Even though Frrrt himself is currently in Hell. I'll be honest, I'm still not sure how I'll handle the future updates yet, since there's no point in re-treading the same ground as far as the story goes, so I'll just more than likely be hitting the highlights.

TO BE CONTINUED

I'm pretty sure you can play the cow level as much as you want if you leave the cow king alive.

Yeah, this.

Really?

Wow, I've been grossly misinformed.

(though my rage wasn't misplaced, because while I didn't get it in screenshots, I DID kill the Cow King in my aborted disconnected attempt)

Do ya'll know for sure? Can we get Bungle Confirmation?

My Normal and Nightmare runs are spent, I guess I'll have to save my Hell run then.

It's not bungle confirmation, but I can assure you that it is correct. I tried!

Yup, as long as you don't kill the Cow King, you retain the ability to create the cow portal indefinitely. Not that it's a big deal anymore, though. The drop quality and experience payout of the cow level were reduced dramatically in 1.10, so farming (heh) there isn't really optimal anymore.

The Cow King thing gets more complicated if you play the cow level in a game that includes other players, though. Killing the Cow King is basically a hidden quest, and when the quest is completed by a character he/she loses the ability to create the cow portal on that difficulty level. This makes things a little messy when other players get involved, because they can be affected by the completion of this quest as well.

To illustrate how this works, let's think up a fictional character named Moo. Moo has completed Act V on this difficulty level and has never killed the Cow King before. That means Moo can create the cow portal whenever he wants.

Now let's say that Moo is in a game with other characters. Either Moo or someone else makes a cow portal, which Moo enters. If Moo kills the Cow King (by landing the killing blow), then all characters present in the cow level at the time lose the ability to create the portal on that difficulty level. This happens even if these characters aren't in Moo's party. By killing the Cow King, Moo completes the Cow King quest for every character present.

But now let's imaginate two other characters in the same game, named Mu and Meu. Mu has not completed this difficulty level, and Meu has completed this difficulty level and has killed the Cow King before.

Neither of these characters is eligible to create the cow portal. Mu can't do it because she hasn't beaten Baal yet, and Meu can't do it because he's already beaten the Cow King and completed the quest.

However, both of these characters can still enter someone else's cow portal, and because they aren't eligible to create a portal themselves they also aren't eligible to complete the Cow King quest. If either Mu or Meu kills the Cow King, no one else present will complete the quest either.

What this all boils down to is that if you play the cow level with other people, make sure that the character who kills the Cow King has either done it before on that difficulty level or hasn't completed that difficulty level yet. That way no one will lose their ability to make the portal.

And if you're playing solo, just don't kill the King at all and you'll be fine.

'nother question,

When Larzuk adds Sockets to an item will he always add the maximum amount that item can hold? ie: add 4 to a Monarch Shield, not 3. Something like that.

Yes. If you want less than that for a specific runeword, it is best to use one of the crafting recipes. Uniques, Set and Rare items socketed by that quest only gain 1 socket, though.

Larzuk Socket FAQ:

• Normal: Up to the maximum number of slots for that item class.
• Magic: 1-2 slots
• Rare, Set, Crafted, and Unique: 1 slot.

Is there an Assassin in the house? Cos Bartuc's dropped from Hell Diablo after I finished the quest, and it is not ethereal this time! Yours to whoever wants it.

I'd say try and toss it Osso's way, you might have better luck being on when he is, I think our times are too different (and non-Ethereal is more better anyway)

One thing I really hope they fix in D3 is the terrible pathing AI for hirelings and pets. My Blizzballer Sorceress is nearing the end of Act II Nightmare, and between the Maggot Lair and the Arcane Sanctuary, there have been a whole lot of dungeons lately with tight squiggly paths. This leads to my mercenary doing one of two stupid things:

1. Getting caught in a corner or on a ledge somewhere and not knowing how to catch up with me, forcing me to either to plow ahead solo until he's far enough behind that the game just teleports him to me, or use a pointless town portal;

2. Being positioned in such a way that nearby monsters are outside of his sphere of awareness, with me unable to get him to notice them. Usually this involves me getting pounded by something nasty while he stands alert and battle-ready ten feet away, staring off into space. One very special case had him standing on a staircase while those lich guys blasted him with fireballs on a diagonal from the ledge below so they were out of his line of sight. He bravely stood there and caught every fireball with his face like a true champ, rather than take three steps forward to investigate what it was that was gradually murdering him. What am I paying you for?!

Think about this: After you pay him the first time, the only other time you shell out money is when he dies.

Suddenly, it all makes sense.

WELL YEAH. If he didn't want to be indentured to me for all eternity, even beyond countless grisly deaths, then he should have read the fine print on his contract.

Erm, no, my implication was that he's getting a cut of the money whenever he dies, so he's dying on purpose so as to get a cut of the loot, you see?

Two Bartuc'ses now? That's crazy. I just might be ready to finish the game after this.

I was playing later over the long weekend because I was busy with stuff during the day. I can go on as early as 6 or 7pm MDT any day this week except Friday to pick up the stuff.

Yeah I wasn't expecting it at all. I have basically two sets of equipment for Muntak now - one for magic finding, and one for turtling my way through the game. He's in Act 5 Hell now, slowly making his way along to rescue the captured Barbarians for those 3 free runes from Qual-Kehk.

One thing I forgot is how expensive repairing weapons gets when you have a half-decent one, so I'm having to stop very often to pick up stuff to sell just to keep my equipment fresh. Found a magical berserker axe, so I crafted it into a Blood Weapon and got decent results:
+50 extra damage
10% life leech
+10 IAS
+20 Life
+2 Barbarian Skills

The extra damage is quite low (doing around 490-1590 per strike), but it is better than my old weapon, slightly less damaging overall but the +2 Skills and hefty life leech balance that out. On top of that, I have both Guillaime's and Gore Riders giving him a lot of extra damage sources from Crushing Blow, Open Wounds and Critical Strike, as well as the almost topped out Axe Mastery. I have plenty of Jewels to attempt to make a better one, since they have the potential turn out almost as good as some of the high-level runeword weapons.

Apologies for not posting an update yesterday per my normal schedule, as well as the small nature of this update, but it was a holiday weekend dammit.

When we last saw Owfirehot, she had wiped out a tomb filled with beetles and zombies for no reason other than the fact that it was there and XP is good. But now she's back on the trail of Act 2's omnipresent main quest, and nothing will stand in her way!



Not even this guy, though he sure did try. In addition to being an extremely annoying "leaper" enemy, this jackass also had Teleportation as his random special property, making pinning him down even more of a pain than usual.



Hey, more new enemies! These Spear Cats are distance fighters, and they throw explosive potions around. Spear Cat packs can actually cause significant damage if one just stands in place, so Owfirehot adopts a stick and move strategy, tossing a couple Fire Balls, moving a couple feet, and repeating. This prevents the vast majority of explosives from hitting her, and she emerges mostly unscathed.



Irfanview managed to corrupt almost every screenshot for this particular quest, so I don't have much to show here. These are the Halls of the Dead, our target for this leg of our quest for the Staff of Plot Advancement. This is the only screenshot that came out properly, and it's not even a very good one. Sigh.



A boatload of bad screenshots later we have our reward, the Horadric Cube, seen in the left corner of Owfirehot's inventory. You can see my stash has been cleaned up and my vast supply of purple Rejuvenation potions has been upgraded! This is thanks to said Cube, which allows you to craft items and upgrade certain enhancement items by combining them using the endless supply of duct tape magical engergies contained within the Cube.



Owfirehot also gained a level in the process of clearing the Halls of the Dead, and I once again place the skill point in Fire Ball.



This is the next stop, the Far Oasis. In this area is (surprise!) yet another dungeon containing a doodad Owfirehot needs to progress.



That cluster of black and green pixels on the left edge of Owfirehot's sight radius aren't some kind of horrible image editing disaster involving the spray paint tool, they're a new enemy. These swarms are almost completely harmless. They drain stamina if they strike you, but stamina is used only for running, so that effect is more of a mild nuisance than a threat, and the cause very little direct damage. In other words, these guys are pure cannon fodder.



After searching through the night, Owifrehot finally located the Maggot Lair, the single most irritating dungeon in the entire act.



Doesn't look so bad, right?



How about now? The Maggot Lair is comprised entirely of cramped tunnels that link small chambers. These tunnels are infested with beetles, and the curves of the tunnels cause line of sight issues, meaning you'll often turn a corner only to find yourself staring right into the face of a unique beetle pack. The lightning beetles spew when hit is also extremely hard to avoid in these small tunnels.



Yet another new enemy. These big guys are Rock Worms. They have a powerful ranged attack in the form of poison spit, and they can also lay eggs, which if not destroyed will hatch into worm larvae which rush the player and attack with melee strikes. The best way to handle these enemies is with aggressive AoE attacks in order to destroy the worms and their eggs before they have a chance to create a large swarm.



The Maggot Lair contains many unique worm packs. Ugh.



And one really big worm! Holy crap! How the hell is Owfirehot going to deal with this?



By standing the hallway and lobbing Fire Balls into the room, killing the boss in only a few seconds. It happened so fast i didn't even get a screenshot of it. But I did pick up a new doodad! Cain, fill us in will you?



Thanks, Deckard!

Next Time: More thinly-veiled barriers in the form of plot items to find! Yay!

This is not entirely true, but the corner cases are fairly rare- your item's level would have to be somehow ineligible for the maximum number of sockets. But can't Owfirehot just cast firewall right before each turn and manage to send the wall's length down the next amount of passage?

Athena's Wrath dropped for me in the Claw Viper Temple. Seems to be a shapeshiting-oriented Druid weapon, though, and it only came with a +1 to druid skills. I can't even equip it due to lack of dexterity.

So far I've actually been finding Act II Hell much easier than Act I Hell. I've had a few deaths here and there, but nowhere near as frustrating as the endless parade of 'SCREW YOU' Aura-enchanted uniques I kept hitting in Act I.

She could, but it wouldn't stretch too far down the passage, and it's too slow for my tastes to fight that way. I prefer to just round the corner with one finger on Fire Ball and the other on Teleport.

Well Osso, Hell Duriel dropped something better than an Ethereal Bartuc.

How's a Jade Talon sound?

I'm probably gonna need someone's help to pass it along to him though, since I don't think we'll get to be on at the same time. Anyone able to be the middle man?

While I'm at it, anyone interested in a 'Rhyme' runeword shield? (base is a Round Shield) I'm still using Rhyme, but I found a two socket Luna and decided to upgrade. Shael and Eth runes are easy to come by.

(Oh and the Summoner dropped a Key of Hate, I guess I'm 1/9 of the way to all the keys I need for Pandamonium.... though I wish they didn't have to take up two item slots)

I've never been good at evaluating items, but Jade Talon seems much less useful than Bartuc's for my current build. The + resistances are really nice, but attack bonuses and martial arts skills are quite useless to me at this point given how fragile my character is. I think I'd much rather have the +2 assassin skill levels and the extra 200 damage it'll give to my Fire Blast.

I got a Charged Essence of Hatred from Mephisto just now. Anyone here know what this thing is? I have no idea what it's for, and I wasn't able to find anything about it on The Arreat Summit.

I also got a reasonably good magic staff with +2 to Sorceress skill levels, +2 to Thunder Storm and +2 to Teleport, if there are any Sorceresses out there who are still lacking good uniques. And I got a Crescent Moon, if anyone wants that for some reason.

EDIT: Oh, and I also have an Aldur's Stony Gaze, but I think Spoony already got one or had something better if I remember correctly. Anyway, it has 171 def and +48 cold resist, so I held onto it anyway in case it's marginally better than the one FRRRT (maybe) has already.

Each Act Boss in Hell has a chance of dropping one of the items needed to make the Token of Absolution—for Andariel and Duriel, it's the Twisted Essence of Suffering. For Mephisto, it's the Charged Essence of Hatred, while for Diablo it's the Burning Essence of Terror. Finally, Baal drops the Festering Essence of Destruction.

The Token of Absolution? Stat/skill reset, if you used all three of Akara's.

I still haven't used any of my respecs from Akara, so... that's pretty lame. Charged Essence of Hatred is up for grabs, as well as a Dark Adherent.

EDIT: ...and a Rite of Passage to go with it!

EDIT 2: ... never mind! I got disconnected in the middle of transferring to my mule, so both set items are gone. The stuff I listed in the previous post is still available, though.

Well it's up to you, I can hand off my ethereal Bartuc and the Jade Talon, I don't think there's any other Assassin on US-East.

Oh and Andariel dropped two twisted essence of suffering when I killed her, they're currently eating up space in my bank. At this point I'm just going to have to take a look at any runeword I'd ever want, and excise all the unrelated runes from my stash, because I'm fast running out of space.

(and I got the Stony Gaze already, thanks Osso)

But is it better?