I hope your challenge goes well!

pretty awesome! There isn't a thread for your barb run is there? Or any of those dead guys

Nope, sorry. I did do a tl;dr summary for the barb over on reddit. Moving forward I'll have a summary here for each character though.

Today we started in Stony Field. I was complaining about the lack of shael and sol runes when a shael rune finally dropped in black marsh. This allowed me to make my "Rhyme". I went and upped a bunch of ral and ort runes to cube up 2 amn runes from thul to make my first Sol rune for a lore - I went with a circlet base for the shadow warrior gear spawns. I'm still running as much MF as I can get away with 85% - This will probably change soon. The Rhyme and Lore alleviated some health concerns so that I could run a beefier health belt for a bit while I start pumping vitality. I feel quite nervous with my current hp, but block (~54% atm) and CoS do alleviate some of the burden there.

I then proceeded to do tower and got an Amn back (which then went into a broad sword base "spirit" for some prebuffing before I shop some shadow claws in a5), sadly not higher. However, I've dropped 2x dol so far (one from a5 normal).


There were a lot of cursed packs during my journey to Andariel today - but fade is making that relatively "okay". I'll use BF against really dangerous packs while the warrior just tanks. I actually dropped something like a dozen set items, including an immortal will (fond memories of my last barb run). I really did not start dropping uniques until around jail 2 or 3 and a couple in catacombs.

Andariel was quite stingy however:


I only had to shop fara 2 or 3x to get a battle boot upgrade to the sharksin boots I was using. I may try for better but here's where the gear finalized after today. Now I'm just hoping for some lem and ko rune drops:


edit: p.s don't let the 627 hp fool you.. I'm around 561, I left swap on spirit not steel - sorry! I do think a 130+ hp gain today helped. I'm hoping, but doubtful, to reach 1k before hell.

This post was edited by LogicalLynx on Jun 22 2020 06:25pm

Today started off well enough, but it became quite a tilter:

I swapped out Zanahri for Haseen - I really find holy freeze useful for these types of runs. I'd like to take might, but I don't think I can afford giving up the safety.

Sewers gave up a Ko; One Lem rune to go and I'll be in business (I do plan on making another lawbringer)


I then ventured out into the desert to find a shiny object - who doesn't want more magic find?


However the further I got the more cruel today's adventure became. I faced countless dual enchants, many of which were FELE including (but not limited to) a FELE beetle (basically a tri-enchant).

I used blade fury to safely kill them from a distance like this annoying FELE maggot:


1/2 for A2NM

This post was edited by LogicalLynx on Jun 23 2020 08:04pm

I was making really good time and progress until Claw Viper temple. I had just cleared out the majority of floor 1 and was just about to clear the final rooms when I got my FIRST Halt 422 error... I had no idea what happened and did not initially realize this may be related to the Ancients/CoS bug since I've had audio/stream related issues crashing my D2 client in the past - I figured my once resolved nightmare had come back. So upon reloading the game I skipped floor 1, missing out on all the drops/exp for the integrity of the run and proceeded to clear and pick up my amulet on floor 2.

I was a bit annoyed and tilted, mainly because I had to give up potential items - exp usually balances out anyways. But we started to recover and make our way through the palace and harem without issue. Arcane proved challenging; An extra strong/cursed pack of wraiths nearly claimed my run putting me under 150 hp quickly. I spent the majority of the time on this map ~1h in today's 7.5h run.

Canyon was quite easy although a bit dangerous with lots of hell and spear cats accompanied by brutes. There were a few trying closely grouped extra strong spear cat packs that got my heart racing. Tombs was going well until about the 4th fake tomb where I ran into a pack of champion unravelers, one of which was possed + a unique CURSED unraveler pack + a unique LE beetle pack (yes 2x LE) - this was tilting but we overcame the arduous fight and just when I felt like I was rebounding and almost done clearing this 4th tomb:


TIL that Cloak of Shadows on immobile targets, such as mummy sarcophagi, nests, etc throws this error. Fortunately I had tp'd back to town often during this tomb and only had to give up about half the map. However the following fake 2 tombs proved challenging with making careful use of CoS due to mummies. I was quite sour for the rest of the run - apologies to everyone watching.

I finally made it to the final baddy of act, and was more than eager to get the hell out of a2 and move on to a3. I did drop a "strength" into a cutlass to start the fight. I have a base for "black" but still lack an Io and had already cubed all my Thuls for my first Sol - so that will have to wait a bit:


Here is where my gear and stats wound up at the end of A2NM. I'll be pumping a lot of vit tomorrow. I'm back down about half a level due to missing out on Ancient Kaa, half a tomb, and claw viper temple f1's exp and drops:


The goal from here on out will be to:
• craft some blood gloves now that I'm 60, hoping for Alacrity>bat>res=stat
• gamble into some wyrmhides around clvl 64 (my gold is 2.5m but I'm not confident after our last gamble attempt)
• Find a Lem rune to put into a 3os longsword base for my first lawbringer.

Thanks for reading!

2/2 for A2NM

This post was edited by LogicalLynx on Jun 23 2020 08:05pm

Lawbringer would be awesome for sure. Curious what you want to gamble wyrmhides for?

I'm currently using Battle boots. Its just to get a quick 30% phys dmg boost while hoping to drop a Lem.

Oh wyrmhide boots, that makes a lot more sense, I was thinking wyrmhide armor

This post was edited by davor70790 on Jun 24 2020 04:04pm

Today I started off crafting some blood gloves (sharksin) I had 4 p.rubies and managed to get 20% IAS on my second roll - decent overall stats. I would've liked having some mana leech too but this did free up the ring slot to bring back some mana leech. While shopping and gambling for gloves and warboots I stumbled across this belt:


I've been complaining about life a fair bit so I was more than happy to pick this baby up. I also found a life 3os armor to replace my 60% mf BP. I did burn 3 p.topaz in it.

I gambled into these rare greaves, they seemed worth a p.ammy to up to warboots:


I also decided it was time to ditch the steel flail and start rocking the strength cutlass I made for yesterday's duriel fight. I was not disappointed - this felt much better for all of A3.