Jab Throw Tank Zon Euhcl Journey - Topic

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Jun 19 2025 04:18pm

Major setback / Geleb flamefinger death touch

Huuuuge setback, was going to move forward, long streak of no good drops. I do the old routine, get down to durance lvl 2 waypoint, which was fairly easy for a change. Had been doing 10-15 travi runs before, but waited a good 5 minute before the switcharoo thing. And didn't rush it as i never do, but i did go through 2 mules before getting the barb, to find a 20% faster run walk circlet i had gambled. Still waited what seemed like 15-20 seconds. I must have been one Friggin second too early, because i got a soft ban ... after dropping the gorefoot, zephyr bow and 20% frw circlet on the ground.................. so that's a Friggin huge drawback, losing those items, AND the stairway to level 3 durance........... So now i have to run through the goddang jungle again. I will use the barb, to get levels, one tiny minor positive thing about it is that i seem to get a lot of experiene through there, level 20, goes quite fast.. expecting to get at least two more levels.

So.... that's how it goes ^^ One step forward, two steps back. Today's been one of those days too, soo stressful, everything i touch turn to shit... But. What can you do but learn. Next time, never rush, never stress. Shit happens. If you stop, you die. Could be worse .. over to the next item...

Been more than once happning, geleb flamefinger, even without being amp'd, deals quite a staggering amount of damage. I did mention taking 100 damage, but i did receive more a few times. Like, suddenly seemed to lose 50% hp on one hit, from 320 hp to like 160... dangerous. Idk how. Fire resist about 60%, so it should not happen. So tanking especially him i won't do in the future. Took extra precaution and threw javelins on him from then on, and will do in the future.

One more positive thing using a1 merc in travi, is that the act 2 merc, when facing the temple, he will try to kill the right-positioned water snake monster, and there is some kind of pixel fault there, so he will just stand there and not attack. And just take damage. The act 1 merc will shoot them and kill them fast and efficiently.

When she is positioned correctly, i.e. if you run up to the temple, and she is behind, just lobbing arrows, it works very well. Deals good damage, while you tank. So the act1 merc can measure up quite well, if just using it correctly. Now i lost the zephyr hunter's bow .... but shouldn't be too hard to make a new one... i think i have an ort and eth stored...

Quote (Lazybumi @ 17 Jun 2025 16:40)

Nice Taurean!
Keep up the good work!

Hey, thanks!

Taurean

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#12

Jun 19 2025 05:37pm

Sudden turn of luck

Right so, lol, before going zzz, i was deciding to do gamblin with the 200 000 gold i had from the travi runs, hoping to get a 20% frw heavy boots ..... and quite soon, i got real lucky, 30% fire res, some other stats, n 20% frw. Lucky. Then another pair of heavy boots 20% frw n something else.. good enough to keep on mule. Thank the forces.

Then luck turns higher. I go on circlets, n gets some incredible stuff. 27% edmg, 1-54 lightning dmg, 7-28 cold dmg, 9 str, 17 life, 3 replife .. lvl 19 requirement! I consider that an incredible turn of luck. Using that on myself, letting merc get the fire damage circlet. N gave her a new shopped 3 socket composite bow, with 3 ort runes, 3-150 lightning dmg, now she deals about 38-225 dmg or something xD Arrows hit hard as hell ^^ The dolls in the durance dies fast on range, very good safety.

Mephisto went down very easily, though merc took hard hits and died a few times, but also stumbled on a life tap wand from a travi member earlier (same thing happened last season, i forget to shop it ^^), leeching hard from mephisto, it helps. Sadly no good drops, though 5 rares, a decent lvl 9 eth armor i keep for maybe future characters.

So! The philosophy becomes ..... sometimes, loss is what you need to turn your favours around. As absurd as it sounds. There you go, a rhyme in the night, now it's off light, tired as hell, hoping to get to sell, the dresser i bought used for 50$ 5 years ago, for 80$ tomorrow ^^ Dang that's a lucky rhyme streak ^^ I'm at a performance peak xD

Taurean

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#13

Jun 20 2025 06:48pm

Diablo goes down ... twice - Ironstone

Finally managed to pick myself up and rush both characters through act 3, and 4. Act 3 with barb went surprisingly fast, only lost 1 hour on the previous mess-up. There are some strange mechanics at work. Barb does well enough, still using deathspade, then double throw on switch. Can tank relatively well, deals okay damage. Yet ama jabzon does equally big damage or even more! Tanks okay enough as well, has lower hit points, but the dodge/avoid/evade does help. Level 29 now, soon gets valkyrie AND pierce.. which will be interesting. Pierce is usually synonym with lightning fury, yet now it's all about normal javelin throw damage.. i do have mostly physical damage, i think something like 50-120 throw damage, before critical strike which is at 54%, level 9 i think... took visible chunks of diablo's hit points each throw, and hit relatively often too. Merc dies within 3 seconds, lol xD Sadly.. but i think all mercs does that. Barb did double throw on diablo, did good damage.

Drops were not great, but ironstone dropped, which is fun ... i tried it on the zon ^^ 100-250 damage before critical strike, i did a few travi runs (first drop i got angelic halo xD Cool) like, 2-4 hits takes down a boss member, kind of fun ^^ Deals big damage. Whether i will keep using that through act 5 or not, i guess we'll find out tomorrow. Also goreshovel dropped, i guess will be a real fun thing to try out when barb hits 30 and gets berserk. I really want to keep the shield. I guess it will be used against bosses... may be a real big damage pusher. Tancred's crowill also dropped, would need more gear pieces to use it ... I will rush through act 5, and also nightmare, up to travincal there, and then start doing runs there .... man it will be a fun journey. Next biggest hope now is baal drops! Really hoping for cool drops!

Taurean

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#14

Jun 22 2025 05:53pm

Act 5, level ups, some drops, hitting level 30

Blastin' through act 5, barb got 20% frw boots, same circlet, edge bow and stealth armor = 50% frw, and increased speed .. runs fast as hell ^^ Ama went through act 5 quite fast, but it did take a good hour and even more.. it felt actually a bit slow, even if it went smoothly. I am just glad i got the barb to run through and get all the waypoints. Ama is at least now in durance level 2 wp, and level 34.

Some cool drops been going on, but not enough to really take ama and/or barb to the next level. I won't be able to really crush the baal waves and i do not look forward to the lister pack.

Ironstone worked well on ama, but not better than the pilum+jab. Fend works great, probably better than jab. So i use that. Did about 50 eldricht+shenkruns, and a pretty cool ceremonial javelin dropped, with about 5 x bigger damage ........ but 109 dex req, i got 80, so i am about 6 levels behind, and 450 hit points, which is a bit low. So it's hard to choose here. The big damage will really help. Not quite sure what to do here.

Although survivability feels good. Ama does not often take the big hits to get below 300 hit points. But it has happened. But really, gear-wise, i have some cool life leech, it leeches quite well, even mana leech on the amulet! So it works quite well.

I actually got full cleglaw set. Pretty cool to use on ama, as i predicted before the season, if i find a cool weapon or similar, will try it only as a passive+critical zon. It kills baal's minion in 2-3 hits, and shenk in 7-8 hits. I actually think i will be using that at least on baal. With jab+pilum, and even more with fend, the 25% slow on cleglaw gloves is actually a bit helpful! I never would think, but it helps a bit, i have cold damage too, it does slow the enemies quite a bit and increases safety. As does knockback, not really a huge help, but it helps to keep monsters a bit on a distance.

If only i had a stronger 1-h spear, it would really help ... damage is a bit low, even if i have pretty good gear. 40-190 damage on jab, about 50% of it elemental. Merc deals 50-250 and dishes out the damage, actually a big help, standing behind and launching arrows, feels good to get that support. I think reaching for the 109 dex will be the best option here.

Bloodthief also dropped, 2-h spear, which works well, but the damage is a bit low, again. Leeches great, but losing the shield and cleglaw synergy is too big a loss.. and the damage is almost equally good. Which is the usual symptom for bloodthief. I could upgrade it, but even still needs 95 dex and 80 strength, which is too high, got 65 strength.. and i will keep the shield. Unless i would find a really cool 2-h spear, but that hasn't happened.

A very abnormal drop happened ... a frozen terror dropped an ik helmet xD Lol... lvl 47... won't be able to use it until a long time, but cool find for the barb.

Barb is level 24, will be doing ancients to get 25, and then do eldricth+shenkruns to about level 32-34. Will probably be about 100-150 runs. Hoping for more cool drops. Has been trying for amn rune, even chipped topaz to cube 3 thuls.. to make edge runeword for gambling. And to try it on act 1 merc. Still using the 3-150 lightning damage bow, works great. But maybe edge would be a notch better.

So the going is, i would say, good. Not pushing hard, but been at it for 3 hours today and it's been quite good. Not done baal yet ... will probably do that the coming week, and move on to nightmare. Hoping for cool drops. Got about 100% magic find on switch gear.

Taurean

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#15

Jun 23 2025 05:55pm

Circlet luck, edgy gambling

Barb gone to level 28, doing travi and eldricht+shenkruns. Drops are no exciting, i did finally get a chipped topaz, thus making edge and being able to gamble the 1 million gold saved up. But damn ^^ Gambled probably 40 throwing spears ......... only 1 damn rare! And it was lousy xD Though, the circlets can be pretty damn great. Gambled one that i decided to use over sigon helmet+belt combo, losing 10% life leech and 300 attack rating, but gaining

level 25 req
50 defense
1-119 lightning damage
4% mana leech
7 energy
14 all resist
3 damage reduce

Circlets like that are just crazy.

Actually using full cleglaw set on barb, concentrate. It does pretty damn good damage xD Doing 30-360 .. about 50% elemental. Hitting very fast, probably 2.2 hits a second. The set weapon has 50% critical strike.. shenk goes down in anything from 3 to 6 hits.. lol ^^ Will be fun to see how berserk does.

Yet even with all this decent gear, the going seems slow. Played for 3 damn hours today, just gained almost 4 levels.......... was hoping for more. But, barb is a different character, no mass killing, one on one all the time.

Merc just got to using edge (long battle bow, all i had), not testet it yet, wondering how it will fare against the 3-150 lightning damage bow.

One huge great find just on the end of the 3 hour run .. ethereal partizan, from death mauler = monster level 32 = 25-40 = 4 sockets. So this puts me in a dilemma. Even though i do not have a sol rune, i can contemplate trading for it, and then use act 2 merc. It's a really strong act 2 merc weapon. It will outperform the act 1 merc now by about 5 times, is my estimate. Will deal tremendous damage, and probably make lister pack manageable. So this is a difficult decision.

Taurean

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#16

Jun 24 2025 05:32pm

Insight ethereal partizan / Quest bugging

So the ethereal partizan was like 500-1200 damage on the merc xD With the great circlet with ~38% ed... That's like almost 10 x more damage than the a1 merc, so it's just too good to pass up. Lister pack is not hard at all, lister himself goes down in about 4-5 hits from the merc. Just insanity. Gained 5 levels on the barb just in 2 hours play. So that's a huge improvement. It feels like this was a major push forward.

Did anya quest with barb, now has all res, and 85 fire res, due to finding infernostride from quest bugging baal! Zon moved to nightmare, level 37, barb was level 28, i figured doing some 10-20 quest bugged baal runs in normal to get levels and hope for good drops. Which i finally did get some decent stuff! Infernostride as mentioned, and a decent rare field plate, with 5 damage reduce. Now using berserk exclusively, learning to use it. It's very different. Cleglaw set is just extremely overpowered, low minimum damage, but 60 max on the weapon, with 50% crit on it, and 15 from the skill (level 2 with bc), it crits very often. I found humongous 2-h axe with very high damage, but EVEN that one does not really deal a humongously (^^) more amount of damage for the shield tradeoff. Yes, there's about 150-200 more minimum damage, but losing the shield, and slower swing too, i'm sticking to the cleglaw set. Though, should i find a sol rune, upgrading it could be an option. That would deal a huge amount of damage, and it has crushing blow too. Could be the deal for nightmare. Though that means 0% block and defense... the insight+prayer on the merc gives 20 hp each second, i do have to accept to use pots. Swapping between berserk and concentrate i am not interested in doing. I think the key to using berserk is to just go for the more important monsters, and skip all the others. Which is something i like.

It seems also, using berserk, controlling the flow of monsters becomes more of an importance, playing tactically. Which is something i've been doing since playing hardcore, for years. Getting high hit point regeneration on the gear is also an option for berserk, since no leech, but is hard to do, but is something i will keep in mind. A fun challenge.

So the going is very good at the moment!! Probably do 4-5 more quest bugged runs tomorrow, then move on to nightmare.

Taurean

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#17

Jun 25 2025 02:25pm

Baal dies again / goodie gumdrops

The decision to run quest bug baal runs was a good one, the humongous axe was decent, but i was lucky and got bonesnap, not once, but twice xD 266 and 267% ed, almost like a sign, to run 2-h berserk, which i've done the last 4 runs, and it's fun xD 500-1200 damage, and 0 defense ^^ lol. It's very different. You take good chunks of life from baal each hit. I am considering respecing and getting 7 skill points to mace mastery. It's really cool to hit 95% of all monsters in 1 hit. Though there is some kind of weird thing going on .. the death lords, about 30% of them takes like 98% damage, requiring 2 hits instead of one. Also, attack rating is not really stellar, 77% chance to hit death lord, 58% chance to hit baal, but still. It's very different to select gear for berserk barb. Defense is less of a priority, but still not neglectable, it is helpful with defense if one is being tactical, needing to pass groups of enemies, or similar circumstances, walking, or standing still. Idk yet. At least, the inisght act 2 merc with prayer gives now about 25 life each 2 seconds, and i simply have to pot to heal. I am going to focus on getting more regeneration, make that a priority. It's something i've been wanting to try for years, getting like 50-70 regen, would be cool to see how that works. Skin of the flayed one comes to mind... hard to find, but who knows.

So now it's nightmare time. I may even try bonesnap on the zon xD 54% deadly strike ^^ We'll see ^^ Both level 37.

And yes .. merc hits like a truck xD Major upgrade. So i think nightmare is going to be a breeze. Resists are great too, hawkmail dropped, 90% cold resist, 85% fire resist, will probable get lower in nm, but i do have 7 mules of gear, with lots of different rings, circlets, amulets.. will focus on getting high resists so at least that won't be an issue.

Taurean

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#18

Jun 27 2025 05:46pm

NM andy / Zon bonesnap

So thinks are turning quite different from the title of this thread, lol! Barb got past andy, went relatively well. Took about 100-150 hit point hits, had to be a bit careful, but went okay. Merc hits hard as hell, so it was not difficult. Lousy drops......... chipped gems.. one rare, bad. I never liked running andy. Often lousy drops like that, even if quest bugged.

The berserk barb is still something getting used to ... I can see as the skill points go up, the duration of the zero defense goes down. The only significance that gives, is that you run in, take out a few monsters, then run out, until the zero defense goes away, then run in again.. idk. That's how i do it anyway. Because hanging around, monsters close in, you start taking hits. Playing tactically is the key. Very much considering upgrading bonesnap, the damage is not bad, but getting that increase would be a good idea. I got 125 strength too.

So the zon is using bonesnap, and it's fun xD Sad thing is, only ~800 attack rating, so it's like ~57% chance to hit. But still, does great damage, and considering socketing it and using a perfect diamond in it... 100 extra ar will help. Still not finding good throwing spears, got maiden javelins, even those rare, but the damage is just not good. Also lacking a good shield. Will be playing more zon tomorrow, getting 3-4 more levels and defeating andy. Will be advancing to act 3 travincal to do runs there for a while, leveling up and hoping for better drops. Really hard to get good javelins. They do like, low to moderate damage. Having a shield helps, but when you do low damage, you still hang around taking damage, so that is not good strategy.

Also leveling valkyrie, level 8, quite helpful. Just have to put more time on the zon, to see a better performance.

One pretty crazy anomaly!! Zon took griswold. From the hundreds of times i've killed griswold, he's NEVER ever dropped any good items for me. Like, ever, as far as i can remember. It's been a thing for me. But now? He drops culwen's point, and dark clan crusher - both ethereal!!! What the hell are the chances for that xD I mean it's weird. Not useful items to me though, and that sucks. Still, just a huge anomaly. Which is funny enough ^^

izParagonzi

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#19

Jun 28 2025 02:50am

Dude, you Barb using Berserk... do you use Howl to clear waves, go in, kill off the one that is NOT affected with ease and then 1 hit kill off those that run back in after howl expires? Conc for Crowd control because you gain defense and still deal damage if you have the synergies... and the Magical damage from points added into Berserk?

You are not using your Berserk barb skill to its' potential or Howl... which you should have at least 10 base points into it by now if I remember correctly... you only add to Berserk after other Synergies, like Battle Orders, Command, maybe like 5 points into Berserk while synergies are upped to increase its' damage and your survival... you are playing Hardcore, not Softcore clearing difficulties in the fastest time bud... you play hardcore to reach the goal and with all buildings, you start with the foundation, not the end product in mind before a foundation is built. Same with strategy.

Great going on both builds, and yes, I would have done it differently in some aspects, and those fancy boots you found early on, I would have preferred MF runs to find Hsarus and the Belt to go with it in Act 1 killing off Den, Rakamishu (whatever his name), tristram, Tearhaunch and even clearing Tower levels 1 to 5 of all monsters... then Boneash and Andy.... but hey, you wanted to get to Act 5 fast with crap gear and gamble junk... well that is my view, we just play differently.

Oh, next time, use poison dmg items (gems, jewels) over 2 sec delay with socketed bows on your rogue, it actually comes in very handy vs all monsters... you can just stand in the middle of a mob wave and watch them die because of your Rogue and you just tank... zon / barb.

EDIT: oh, forgot about Shout also... defense and synergy... alternate them accordingly for Beserk and other skills of the barb. Sorry for prattling on.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Jun 28 2025 02:58am

Lazybumi

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#20

Jun 28 2025 09:02am

Nice progress :thumbsup:

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