After yet another failed WT (this time due to a crashed hard drive) followed by a year-long hiatus from anything Diablo II related, I have returned to make another attempt at my first ever Guardian. Has the time away sharpened my wits and given me a greater appreciation for the power of patience, or will my eroded skills lead to another embarrassing RIP before I even reach the later acts of Hell? Let's find out!

Rules:
- Hardcore
- /p8 at all times, /p1 allowed for Countess re-runs
- Ladder runewords are allowed
- No extended stash or any other mods
- Have fun

This is Ralf.



Ralf is going to be a Wind Druid.



LET'S GO

Relying on Ravens and Poison Creeper until I get Fissure!



Molten Boulder made short work of Blood Raven.



Fissure changes everything. Treehead died in just a few seconds.

Saved Cain.



Countess quest kill--I will run her a few times for some early runewords.



The strategy at this point is cast Fissure, then run around in circles while everything dies. Smith was no exception.

Andy managed to kill my Merc, but she went down quickly all the same. Onwards to Act II!



The worst part of being a Fissure Druid--enemies that don't move take barely any damage. This fight took a while.



Grabbed the Cube...



This post was edited by MegaCatholic on Aug 12 2017 08:55pm

...followed by the Staff.



First Druid head with relevant skills! +1 to Fissure is always nice, and free Cyclone Armor is a nice bonus.



Snagged the Amulet.

Summoner in mid-death pose.



Duriel was slightly stressful. He ran around on top of my Fissures, which was nice, but he did a lot of damage to me when he caught up to me. No FRW really hurts here.



Happy to be in Act III, starting with the Jade Figurine.

Grabbed the Eye.



After what seemed like a map way too huge to be in Normal difficulty, I found the Flayer Jungle, and the magical butterknife.



First Fire Immune

Made my way down to level 3 and grabbed the Brain.



This made me do a double take. Literally the exact same helm as the one I'm wearing already--same graphic, same staffmods, everything. The only difference is this one has a few more points of defense. What are the odds???



Moving on, grabbed the Heart.

Vita



The Fire Immune council members were a pain, but I managed to get the Flail.



*whoosh*

Found an eth-rep item on the way to Meph, always cool to see.



Meph was easy. Pop out from behind wall, cast Fissure, go back behind wall and wait for cooldown. Act III done!



I pretty much went AFK and let my Merc handle this one