I plan to rerun Andariel until I get Bloodfists, and this is not the kind of map generation I like to see.



Hey alright. Always nice to pump a little extra mf before Andariel. The ar and poison res is tiny but it's not nothing.

Could cram antidotes, but no need. Andy is dead. These are not the heavy gloves we are looking for.



Puke Feast. A child only Andariel could love.



The VERY first rerun yields Bloodfists straight away. I had my tally app prepared and everything. Rerun luck has been outstanding so far. Let's not assume it will last.

Easy breezy A1. On to what is arguably my least favorite act in the game for several reasons. Thank Christ for Leap.

leet haxor or photographer or GFX artist .......the

possibilities are endless!!

wrinkles eyebrow

or are they?

Gimp, actually. I'm a pro at drawing rectangles and copy/paste.

Begin Act 2



Exhibit A of my dislikes of this act. Greater mummies cast poison breath, inflicting DoT that never goes the hell away.



I guess I've never paid enough attention to the map layouts of Lut Gholein's sewers, because I always seem to do this.



This is going to be a bit of an exercise and learning experience in editing. Probably over-doing it overall, but I'm enjoying it.

I'm already beginning to feel particularly weak, so I decide to farm up some Rals and shop a couple socketed axes to smooth things along a bit. My rerun luck continues to be exceptionally stellar.



Should rip through most things until decent replacements present themselves. I wouldn't mind finding some min/max & ar jewels.



Dope! Dope dope dope. Any +all this early in the game is a huge boon for the barb. We'll be using a lot of skill points in every tree, and everything from our damage/ar, resistances, defense, warcries etc. will all be stronger. I'm addicted to mf as well and we're nowhere near severe diminishing returns yet.

Credit where it's due: When it comes to item showcasing, I had to take some inspiration from 2_shy. This is the simplest, cleanest way to edit these shots into something that's pleasant to look at and easy to follow. Check out their walkthroughs here in the PvM forums, because their editing is on point and crisp af. I am but a novice line maker.

Dropped from a random mob. Put it on my face.



Found this bro skulking about. A stabbier merc is great, but Amp is invaluable to us. So this gets chucked.



Barb does not care about your Maggot Lair / Arcane woes. Path was the 4th, as to be expected of course.

Walking on tri-res mf feets now. Found these in one of the sanctuary's dead-end chests.



I worked through 6 tombs to hunt down Kaa because I can. You never get to see Kaa these days (because it's a super-unique entirely not worth finding).
These boots immediately take the place of our previously found boots. I'm hesitant to discard extra resistance, but half freeze is actually a breath of fresh air. 15% mf is also just such a... clean number...

Duriel wasn't difficult, but took a fair bit of time because Holy Freeze is a real bitch. I found myself through half my potions before he was at 3/4 hp, and you can only restock with Lesser Healing Potions at this point in the game.
So, I plan B'd it and chugged a bunch of thawing potions. Thawing potions will give you an extra 50 cold res and +10 to your maximum for 30 seconds, but each one you drink stacks the remaining time.
Then it's just a matter of not falling asleep.



Borked the screenshot. Civerb's if I remember correctly.

Act 2 isn't too terrible with the barb. Duriel's just a nuisance. Leap makes all the bs (lair and all that) pretty simple.
On to the jungle.

Begin Act 3



^ I should have edited a period after "Diablo". For some reason, I like the idea that the sentence ends there.

Not a fan of the jungle in the first half of A3, but everything from LK onward I enjoy quite a bit. Without piercing attacks of some variety or a decent AoE, flayers are pretty obnoxious, but unique shamans can be fun if we're careful. Double kill + successful hork is basically three drop pools. I'm a little impatient and run/leap through the majority of the first half of act 3.



Never underestimate the usefulness of Taunt. It's particularly good at shutting up ranged casters that can be cursed.

Despite my impatience, I'm compelled to grab every waypoint in every difficulty, so we're in the Great Marsh.



Good mf (I haven't actually checked what my total is yet) and some successful horking results in very pleasing, colorful floors.

It's tempting to put some hard points into Find Item, but I know it will be boosted enough by +All and any Warcry pre-buff switch weapons I find in the future. I haven't decided whether or not to use 3 to get a point in Berserk. It will probably be necessary.

I'll also likely need to put some extra points into Natural Resistances until I'm geared up well enough to respec.

This post was edited by Aphex on Feb 25 2020 04:22pm