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

What's the defense on that plate? I've been looking for an armor upgrade in the >150 range.

In other news, I finally found a good 2 socketed cap, so I made one of these:

Actually I made a miscalculation, and the plate was still better than the other armor I found. It was under 150 def anyway.

Oh, and I'm also trading away Bonesnap, a unique maul. Any two-hand melee folks interested?

EDIT: Man, the uniques just keep on dropping, also up for grabs: Unique Plated Belt: Bladebuckle, and Unique Morning Star: Bloodrise

I'll take that Sigon shield then. It should make a good switch shield when I don't need defense / resistance until I can craft a rune shield. Are you going to be on tonight?

Also: now that we've got a contingent of people through normal, does anybody want to do a cow run? I've been hauling wirt's leg around like an idiot for an entire difficulty level and I want to use it by gum.

I'm definitely down, lightning fury ho!

Normal Cows on Cattle.Net? Sure, why not? Of course, we'll have to arrange a time for us all to meet up, some of us are not in the US (like me).

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN FOR

The Adventures of FRRRT! the Windy Druid, part the Sixth: Hate Hate HATE!

So we left off last time wit Frrrt at the gates of Lower Kurast. The city of Kurast is broken up into three main segments, Lower Kurast, the Bazaar, and Upper Kurast, and that is followed up by the temple of Travincal, but more on that later.

In other words, just as soon as we hit the end of neverending jungle hell, it's now neverending city hell. But it's easier to rush through the city since you know the path to the next area is in the northeast SOMEWHERE. Frrrt won't be doing that, though. He's got monsters to slay and abandoned homes to raid!


And corners to get stuck in, huh.

Here's what's going on in that shot. Now and then on my online play, whenever I would click on ao object to interact with it Frrrt's position would shift noticably on the screen, like he'd magically jump to an object's left if he runs up to its right to activate it. Must be a weird server timing thing.

Anyway, he saw a weapons rack in that house and went up to it, but he was shifted to the opposite side when he did. Thing is, that opposite side is a total dead end. He's effectively trapped there. He can't walk, and wouldn't you know it, I ran out of scrolls of Town Portal!

Soooooooooo one Save And Quit and restarting later he returns to his looting game, with a full tome of town portal. Along the way he comes a cross a suspicious building.


Kurast has six temples throughout the various parts of the city. Two in each, I think. These are the setting of another one of those 'stumble upon it quests' since I'm pretty sure no one in town will actually point you to them. In one of the six temples you'll find a thing, the rest just have monsters and loot (thus, still worth clearing out).


Oh hey, there's a super unique, and a model from Act I to boot! Actually there were a few Act I reprises in Act III, the Foul Crows returned as Cloud Stalkers, The Flayers actually made their first appearance as Rat Men in the Catacombs of the Monestary, and now the dark rogues are back.

Hey wait, if the super unique is here in the first temple Frrrt explores, then...


Yup! Frrrt finds the book straight away!

You bring that back to Alkor (the Alchemist) for a reward, which I neglected to get a screenshot of! Oh Alkor, forever the goal of Act III's throwaway quests.


Continuing his exploration through the city, Frrrt is mysteriously draw to yet another sewer level. There's just something about them... some kind of kinship he feels being an expeller of deadly gas himself.

Frrrt explores the halls of the sewers with a silent reverence.


And picks up this little item which is equipped under the 'RNG has been crap to him so far' clause.


An he goes deeper into the sewer. He feels as if he is entering some sort of holy chamber...


Oh hey, that probably contains another piece of whats-his-face. Geez, at this rate Frrrt will be able to restore Khalim to life, he'll just need his Rib, Nail, and Ring..... wait...

Silly Frrrt, no resurrections for you.


Also THIS was in a nearby chest. And boy howdy does it look nice. +2 to Cyclone Armor may not seem like a huge boost, but Frrrt hasn't come across any other +Druid Skills worth using, and thanks to Synergies it is a direct boost do his damage output.

He doesn't equip it yet though, the Helm he has gives him +5 Strength, and he still needs that to keep his current armor equipped. He'll pump Strength up on his next level, so until then severed goat's head!


Along the way Frrrt clears out another temple, this one with effing Scarabs.

THANKS GAME I SURE AM GLAD TO SEE THOSE ASSHOLES AGAIN.


And a third temple is full of Claw Viper recolors! It's like the game keeps bringing back every little thing I hated about Act II!


To save you the trouble, he finds the other three temples. Nothing worthwhile drops in them.


And here we are, Travincal. The insane council must be disposed of, and Frrrt needs to recover Khalim's Flail to open the way forward.

Why? I never really understood that. Khalim's body parts and flail are probably one of the more transparent 'we need an excuse for you to explore the entire Act that you would otherwise skip' quests in the game.


Well the battle with the council was underwhelming. Frrrt threw a few Tornados at them and most of them died offscreen. Oh well!


And here's the plot item we need! Let's go introduce it to an Orb and see if we can't... Compell it to open the way for us.

You have to actually equip the item to smash the orb, and you have to actually attack it to do so. Frrrt hilariously misses a few times, before successfully hitting the orb and opening the way forward.

I guess that orb...

*sunglasses*
Just got Compelled.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!


(I apologize for that, moving on)


The Durance of Hate opens up. I'm still not too sure on what a 'Durance' is, I'm sure there's some explanation out there somewhere, but all I know is that I still remember reading it as 'Furnace' first, and that sticks with me to this day.


Alright, it's time to face off against all three Prime Evils! Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal are all going down! Frrrt is going to make their heads spin with his deadly gas! He'll choke the life out of them! He'll take their breath away! He is silent, but deadly!

I'll stop here, I could go on all day.


Oh one of those undead vampire-like guys from Act I! No sweat! I'll just Tornado him down and-- wait, why is he not dying?


.....oh. Oh. Oh! Ohhhhhhhhhhh......

Um...

LEG IT!

Yeah, there's a problem here. I'm pretty sure this guy is a Super Unique, or at the very least you're certain to find a Physical Immune unique of SOME KIND down in the Durance. Thing is, all of Frrrt's damage is physical right now. Tornado? Physical. His Dire Wolf? Physical? The Rogue? Pretty much entirely physical, not enough to really help out. Frrrt has NO WAY to damage this guy.

Well, except for Arctic Blast.

...


EAT FAINT COOL BREEZE ASSHOLE!

.... I'm sorry guys. I tried! I really did! But the one point in Arctic Blast was not cutting the mustard. The jerk actually started to regenerate faster than I was hurting him. There was nothing for it. Since I don't have Hurricane yet, Frrrt had no choice.

Brave Sir Frrrt ran away,
Bravely ran away, away...


Reaching the lowest level of the Durnace, Frrrt dispatches another Council asshole with Tornado, and LEVELS UP! You know what THAT means!


Adding 5 points into Strength, Frrrt can safely replace his old helm and equip this goat head! Not the most sanitary thing, but it does boost the power of Tornado thanks to synergy, and gives him a unique look!


Frrrt kills two more Council wannabes on the way to Mephisto. Both die quickly to Tornado and drop absolutely nothing worth talking about. Except for hilarious name of 'Maffer'. I dunno, something about it just makes me chuckle.

Alright! It's time! Diablo and Baal are nowhere to be seen, but Mephisto is still here! It is time to fight one of the Prime Evils! No Andariel, no Duriel, Mephisto is where sh*t gets REAL!


Mephisto's attacks are potent, but he really needs to get close to do damage. Playing keep away is not only smart, but it's the best strategy for Frrrt since Tornado is long-range. Gone are the days of smacking an Act Boss with a weak melee attack, Frrrt now has firepower!

Of course it takes awhile to position Frrrt correctly so the Tornados don't swerve around Mephisto, but that didn't prove to be too difficult!


This shot is amusing if only because it looks like the Rogue is betraying Frrrt in the eleventh hour and shooting him in the back. Thank god there's no friendly fire!

So does Mephisto prove to be as much of a trial as Andariel and Duriel did? Does the battle take forever with Frrrt having to flee back to town to restock potions 20 times?


Nope. Mephisto dies in 30 seconds or so. No fleeing to town, Frrrt barely even needed a potion. Tornado is crazy powerful and rips through Mephisto, putting an end to the Lord of Hate rather quickly.

Mephisto drops nothing good.

Welp! Frrrt picks up his Soulstone, at least, and moves on. With Diablo and Baal MIA, there's nothing for it but to find some trace of them. Which Frrrt quickly does!


Oh hey I know! You got to find the Blue Portal gun and.... wait, I did that one already too.


WELCOME TO HELL!

Which, I got to admit, looks pretty damn swank. I mean, those are some pretty nice digs for Hell.

Of course this isn't Hell proper, this is just the Pandemonium Fortress, so clearly Frrrt needs to travel through Hell to re-enter the living world and take out the Undead Emperor and

Wait, wrong game.

But the Fortress serves as your base in Hell. It also has the least interesting NPCs in the game, as it just contains Cain, Tyreal (who heals your mercs), and two vendors with 0 personality. It's actually kind of disappointing, even Kurast had more interesting folks even if the only ones anyone remembers are Ormus and Alkor.

But anyway! That's where we end for today! Tune in Wednesday as we dive.

Into HELL!

(Not... not Hell the difficulty, Hell the Act.)

TO BE CONTINUED

Your Wind is not Purple.

Actually, Alkor pointed this one out to me when I was playing (not Songbird), but it will trigger automatically if you get the Tome, I think. I believe he triggers it as soon as you enter Lower or (the redundancy) Upper Kurast. The thing is that the Act III city is the biggest in sheer size, and is probably the one you're the least dependent on. And really, how often do you ever need to leave that one central platform the portal deposits you on?

EDIT:

A hard, rough, long minute of searching reveals that "Durance" is an archaic term for imprisonment or forced confinement, from "durer", or to last. Quite fitting.

As often as you need to a. repair and b. resurrect a mercenary.

Yeah the layout of the Kurast Docks is really annoying if you're a melee character especially. You have to dash to one corner to visit Hratli for repairs and possible purchases, Ashaera is all the way on the opposite site if your merc dies, Meshif gets a visit for that one quest, and Alkor for 2 more. All in all, it is really spread out, much like the Act itself, which is far from convenient.

I prefer the layout of Act 4 and 5 bases, more than any other. Act 1 is a little inconvenient but not annoying, but Acts 2 and 3 leave much to be desired. I hope they fix this in Diablo 3 by making the bases both organic and convenient for all questing needs.

I keep thinking Smallville, so...

It's probably a reference to a particular French commune. About all that makes sense to me, since the only other Durance I've heard of is a river...

When we last left Owfirehot, she had just finished rescuing Deckard Cain from the foul clutches of a demonic horde. She was so happy with the reward of free item identification that she even let him speak! So what is she going to do now?

Well, first she's going to check her stash:



Stash status: minimal usage.
Yes, I know that it isn't actually necessary to keep Wirt's Leg around in your stash, but I do it anyway. It's tradition, dammit!



Owfirehot heads back into the wilderness, beyond the Dark Wood and directly into the Black Marsh. With names like these, I have a hard time feeling sorry for the people here. It's like they were asking for an invasion of demonic beings. I can only assume that after naming these areas narrative law kicked in and the founders immediately said "what's the worst that could happen?"



Well gee, what's the worst that could happen?



You see? Every time! Every single time.



While clearing the latest poorly-named cavern of it's demonic infestation, Owfirehot gains another level! We've been saving a skill point for this level in order to take Fire Ball, a kickass skill of awesomeness, and...



Blaze, a skill that I will only make serious use of exactly one time, but when I do it will be awesome.



Here's Blaze in action, just to show how it works. cast the spell, and leave a trail of fire in your wake, damaging any enemy retarded enough to walk into it, which is basically every enemy in the game. Not terribly useful for the most part, but it will get it's chance to shine, yes indeed. Experienced sorc players will know exactly what I'm talking about.



And here's Fire Ball! This attack will be our bread and butter for most of Normal difficulty. It hits hard, it causes damage to a fairly sizable area around the impact point, it's mana efficient, and it's generally just awesome.



This should give you a good idea of the effective radius a Fire Ball has. Not bad, eh?



I have no idea how I managed to get three portals up, but I took a screenshot because it was funny as hell. One is from a portal shrine, one is from a portal scroll, but I have no idea how a third portal got there. All I know is that getting having three active portals while being the only plyer in a game is awesome.



But enough of being sidetracked. After making a stop at town to sell our loot, we head back into the marsh, and find an old, crumbling tower. We have a quest here! Yes we do. No, of course I didn't forget to take a screenshot of getting the quest, you must have just forgotten about it. Yeah, that's what must have happened alright. Yup.



The tower cellar is a pretty groovy place. Every floor has at least one unique monster/champion pack, and every floor is nice and compact, so you can get some decent loot and XP.



This is the bottom floor, filled with gold as far as the eye can see! It's admittedly not very much, and not even really worth taking, but it looks shiny, dammit.



Hey, it's the boss! I wonder what kind of epic struggle we'll have! Maybe it'll be like fighting Blood Raven, where I'll have to use an unconventional strategy to emerge victorious!



Maybe I'll cast Fire Ball twice, my minion will shoot her once, and she'll explode in a shower of gore. Eh, whatever. It isn't pictured, but The Countess dropped a few gems. She has a solid chance of dropping gems and runes, and sometimes people will repeatedly kill her in search of such items.

Stash status: Groovy



Back to the main quest! We leave the Black Marsh and enter the Tamoe Highlands, where we run into these jerks, and also a couple skeletal mages off to the side there. Unsurprisngly, they die horribly.



Finally! The Monastery! We clean this place out, and we'll be able to head east, beginning the hunt for Diablo in earnest!



Knock knock!
Who's there?



Fire Ball. Yeah, just cut and paste that picture a hundred times or so and you'll have a good idea of how Owfirehot's journey through the Monastery went.



Another new skill! Telekinesis allows you to push enemies around a bit, and also collect items from a distance. It isn't very important, but it's a necessary prerequisite for something aweome, so we pick the skill up anyway and proceed to ignore it forever.



Oh yeah! Another one of those pesky quest things. Owfirehot was asked to bring back some stupid hammer. Geez, Diablo would be dead by now if these yokels didn't keep asking me to do their work for them.



Well that was easy. Our reward for this is the ability to imbue a normal-quality item with magic, generating a random enchanted item. I might not ever claim that reward, as I probably won't ever need it. It's a nice touch that the Horadric Malus is actually an equippable item, though.



Back to the WHY IS THERE A YETI HERE.



We kill the Yeti, we kill his Yeti friends, and then we start setting everything that moves on fire out of spite. Owfirehot finds a swank new bow for Annor (yes I spelled her name wrong like every single time in the last update, no I do not care) as a reward. Score!



This guy might have been more dangerous were he not on the other side of a locked gate that I can merrily fling firey doom through at will.



Owfirehot's Fire Ball hurts! It can kill most enemies here in one shot. She starts working on strength training again as well.

Our first encounter with the spider enemy type is against a champion pack! Too bad fire is super effective against bug types. Fire Ball works very well.



At last, the bottom floor of the Monastery! Outside, then inside, then down, then somehow outside again with grass and everything but you should be underground and then down again and you what what I don't even care anymore. I don't know how they got Bloody Stupid Johnson to work on this, but I'm glad that the madness is almost over.



It's Andariel, the demon queen! How is Owfirehot going to deal with such a terrible foe!?



Tag! You're it!




La dee dah...



Annnnnnd....



I win! You did good, Blaze. Now give me back that hotkey and never bother me again.

Sadly, Andariel dropped nothing of value.



Well, we should be able to travel east now, so I'd better check my stash and make sure I'm packed for the HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN.



Alright Warriv, get your caravan put together and let's go.

Next Time: Wagons east!

It's a word for imprisonment, kind of, mostly used to describe princesses locked in tall towers and that kind of thing.

So Durance of Hate isn't a place of hate, it's a prison for hate.

Durance

Alright folks, normally I'd wait till I reached this part in my LP before I go over loots, but Frrrt just beat Act II Nightmare and is now drowning in uniques.

He needs space, and I'm far too pack-ratty to just throw perfectly good junk away. So here are six uniques up for grabs:



Only gonna hold onto these for a few more days. That Paladin Scepter is especially nice, even if there may not be a Paladin right now who can equip it.

But anyone on the US-East Ladder that wants this stuff can have it.

True story: Until this update, I thought Owfirehot's name was Owlfireshot.

... suddenly I wish there was a spell to blast my foes with burning owls.

Anyone but me kicking around in Hell mode yet? I finally reached Mephisto tonight, and getting some group Mephisto runs going would be just groovy. I desperately need to get my sorc equipped with better stuff before I progress any further, and soloing Mephisto, while easy enough thanks to the moat trick, is... slow.

I hit Hell today myself.

Hell... hurts.

It's been less frustrating since I respecced to drop dodge/avoid/evade to prevent getting locked in place, as well as prepping my str/dex for elite items and rebalancing my skills for a stronger frozen arrow, but I've only just rescued Cain now. Insight runeword on my Act2 Defiance merc has effectively solved my mana issues from normal/nightmare, but finding a decent javelin with +skills and replenishing isn't working out quite as well.

The biggest issue though is merc survival. Part of this I need to solve with gameplay adjustment; maxed LF/CS in nightmare meant I could basically fry anything within 2 screens w/ no concerns excepting the occasional Tainted or Gloam, which FA even at half power was strong enough to deal with. More deliberate play for the next few levels at least should eliminate some concerns. The bigger issue, however, stems from the damn Rogue Archers. A bare handful, 3 or 4 at the most, will perforate poor Chalan before I can feed him a pot.

Still great fun though. I think I'm at 68 last I looked.

I'll take Bladebuckle, Bloodrise, and the scepter if nobody else wants 'em.

I've been a bit lax about my screenshotting, so some of these will have been done by my revisiting Slayer. I'm concentrating more on the game rather than taking interesting screenies, but I'll definitely go back and find some - it is worth the extra effort. Besides, I want to focus more on the actual build rather than the plot of the game.

Anyway, when we last left Muntak he was partially through Act 1. Let's pick up where we left off...



This aura comes from the first buff skill you get - Shout. It is a straight increase to Defence, and at L1 is +100% to that stat. Further levels increase that, and it synergises with the other buff skills by increasing their duration, which is very helpful. Muntak will be maxing this in due time.



After a quick tour of the Barracks Muntak comes across the Smith. Beating this guy up for fun and profit gives me nothing noteworthy, so I just return the Horadric Malus to Charsi (and waste the imbue on a stupid belt, it completes the quest though).



Best skill ever. This is the one-point wonder of one-point wonders. I kid you not. This is Taunt, and it makes monsters come directly to you. Annoying spellcaster throwing fireballs from a distance? Taunt him.



Want to pull that Shaman without triggering Andariel? Taunt him. Seriously this skill is awesome, and one of the reasons I love Warcrys - they make monster management so much easier. Taunt stops archers from pelting you, stops monsters resurrecting their minions. If you want an easy time with a Barbarian (or any class really), get a point in this skill and monster management is a breeze.



Best Mercs are the Act 2 ones. No question. Auras buff the whole party, and they are quite useful in close combat too with the polearms having the most weapon range. I use the Defensive merc in Normal, overkill Def is funny to have with max Blocking. Only thing to worry about then is getting resists up, not always easy in Normal until the last act. Keep them alive and they'll keep you alive in return.



Normal Andariel is no chump for a low level character, but she's not all that hard. Half of the characters can immediately exploit her 50% fire weakness at this point (Sorcs, Druids and Assassins all have Fire-based skills), and she doesn't attack too often so the melee classes are safer too. It is worth investing in a bit of poison resist or length reduction gear for this fight, that poison cloud of hers can be quite deadly. As for Muntak? Well, his poison resistance was poor, so he had to go through a few healing potions, but she spent a lot of his first fight in melee so it wasn't a huge problem. I used Taunt first to clear out the room of mooks then concentrated on Andy.

So, from here, since I want to kind of catch up with my character's progress (currently in Act 1 nightmare, farming Countess for lots of runes), I'll be going through a whistlestop tour of Act 2, and the rest of Normal as well. Again, my focus is more on the build and the equipment and skills therein.



With that in mind, here's another great skill to have just a single point in. Howl causes all the monsters in range to run away, and it is another great method of crowd control. If there's too many for you to handle at once, then Howl them away and work from there. Even with the huge Def and blocking this build has, huge crowds in Hell give everyone trouble, so managing them is necessary.



Notice the blue mess on the floor? That's the result of having Cold damage on your attacks. Cold attacks have a chance of destroying a body outright, and it is really helpful for managing enemies which resurrect their allies and can't be Taunted, like Radament here. Even if you have to make room for a single charm which does Cold damage, like Muntak does, it is worth it for the chance to cut down on the number of foes you need to cut through to get to the resurrecting boss.



I always thought it was funny the Maggots didn't mind other insects invading their home. Anyway, in these tightly packed spaces our build doesn't do so well - I can't rely on my mercenary much, and Muntak had poor resists to Lightning so he died once to a boss pack of Beetles - stupid Lightning Enchantment. Even in these more cavernous areas there isn't a lot of space to work with, so slow and steady wins the race here.

Speaking of slow and steady, for shield using characters, running reduces block rate by 2/3, meaning at best you'll have 25% block rate. It is worth walking through heavily monster-infested areas if you have trouble keeping the damage at bay.



And the award for the most ineffective boss goes to...



Taunt these guys for Wirt's sake. Even my L42 Barb had trouble with large packs of these guys in Normal when they're throwing 40 skellies to hide behind.



Stay away from The Summoner! This guy may be frail but packs a punch - again Muntak died once from his lack of resists first time around. Feels good to return just to one-hit-KO this fool.



Ah Duriel. It is close combat monsters like this guy that Muntak was built for - he can go toe-to-toe with no fear. He does manage to sneak a bit of damage in now and then, so I had to use a total of 2 light healing potions, but his focus was solely on Muntak so the mercenary helped speed up this guy's demise.



Oh Blizzard, what trolls you be.

Coming next is a whistlestop tour of Act 3, wherein I talk about the rest of Muntak's skills, and highlight his main combat skill of Concentrate. Stay tuned!

PS: Is that String of Ears still up for grabs?

The String of Ears is taken, sadly. Interested in the Headstriker though? Might be awhile before you can equip it, but it looks potent.

Aerdan: Want to arrange a time this evening to meet up and trade? My Stash and Backpack are literally full and I don't want to continue until I free up some space.

Muntak is going for axes rather than swords - higher damage and better range for keeping enemies at arm's length. Besides, I've made a half-decent Blood Twin Axe for now, should keep him going through Nightmare at least. One thing I want to show is that for most of the game you don't need a lot of good equipment to get you through the game, and even Hell can be done by a patient poverty-stricken Barb.

Fair enough. Shame if that sword goes to waste though, it looks pretty good.

Also, I missed this earlier

I JUST made one for my Merc too, it's really awesome!

Pick a time and I'll strive to be there.

In other news, I have Sander's Superstition, for any interested Necromancers.

I'm having a hard time finding socketed gear, guess that's the downside of the luck I've been having with finding uniques (Mahim Oak Curio dropped yesterday for me, I'll equip it for a while). If all else fails I'll just attempt a cube recipe on a white or ethereal polearm (Ral+Amn+Perfect Amethyst adds sockets to weapons, and I've got a 50% chance of having the 4 sockets for Insight). The Meditation Aura would be quite handy since Concentrate burns through mana pretty quickly (no Mana Leech atm, but Muntak does have +1 after every kill which stops me burning through all my mana potions every 5 minutes).

A 2-socket helm for Lore would be nice too.

Update update update!

Today's update is a speedy tour of Acts II - IV, because while I've taken plenty of screenshots, I have a horrible memory and don't want to forget all the cool stuff that happened before I post.

Let's get to it!

Kraken's Quest continues in the dry, hot, and sandy town of Lut Gholein.



This whole act makes me thirsty.

Kraken easily zips through the sewers...



... and the Halls of the Dead...



(where he finds this)


In his typical destructive mood, Kraken energetically smashes some pots in the desert, and finds this stuffed inside one:



While this has less damage than the weapon he had equipped previously, it attacks significantly faster. Plus, that 15% (!) life steal, open wounds, and bonus to all resists are super awesome. From this point on, for quite a while, Kraken becomes near-indestructible. He attacks super quick, draining 19% of the damage done per hit. Factor in very respectable resists, and that's a recipe for survival.

Kraken quickly slices his way through the Maggot Lair...



...and the Claw Viper Temple, with absolute ease.



Seriously. Literally used less than a handful of potions for most of this act.

After a quick descent through the Harem/Palace Cellar (really boring, so I didn't take any screenshots), he winds up in Escher's The Arcane Sanctuary.



Astute readers may notice 2 things: I'm using Concentration Aura, and an Act I mercenary. I put a few points into concentration to give me a bit of an edge before fanatacism becomes available, but fear not: I remove the points later, with my first respec. I'm using an Act I merc because I like having the ranged attacker with me. Now that I'm struggling in Nightmare (thanks, players 8), I might switch to defensive act II merc.

Anyways, The Summoner (who, historically, has been challenging for me) went down in about 2 seconds.



Along the way, Kraken found a 2 socketed helm and, since he wants to be like everyone else on this LAP, made one of these:



Then, shortly after arriving in the Canyon of the Magi, he built one of these:



This part of the act, clearing out Tal Rasha's tombs, was a little more challenging. Mostly because players 8 = high mob health, Kraken's equipped weapon has such low damage, and skeletons can't be drained. Still, while it took much longer than I would have liked, Kraken was able to slog through all the false tombs (and the real one) without dying.

Duriel was not difficult. Took forever to kill him, but I didn't have to use any health potions at all, and just one mana potion. He didn't drop anything exciting. Oh, except this:



Aaand, low damage issue solved.

Now, you might be thinking, 'KRAKEN Y U NO TAKE VIDEO??' Well, my video capture software has decided it's had enough, and stubbornly refused to capture any video of me fighting Duriel (even though I tried 4 times). Because of this, I was also unable to get any screenshots. From now on, I won't be trying to take video, I'll just stick to screenshots.

So that's Act II!

Death tally: 0

Here's how Kraken's stats look at the start of Act III:



I -hate- this act. The first half, anyways. The jungle is just so...ughhh. I don't want to talk about it, so here's a story told in pictures!
















There. Much better.

...Alright, I guess there are a few things worthy of mention there. That shield, for one, which nearly maxed Kraken's resists. Also, can now use Fanaticism! Pretty much the only aura I'll be using from now on. And Witch Doctor Endugu, one of my favorite superunique names. Not really sure why, but it kinda has a nice ring to it.

I love finding Stormtree, because it means the jungle is finally over, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Kraken blitzes through the Bazaar, the Sewers, and Lower and Upper Kurast, stopping to pick up a book on the way.



The High Council trembles before his might.



Kraken flails his way down through the Furnace Durance of Hate, at the bottom of which he finds more council members!



Oh, and Mephisto.





Alright, that takes care of one Prime Evil. Only 2 left!

Death tally: 0