I'm still on A1 Hell myself, as I've been spending most of my time IRL. Otherwise I'm running countess looking for some Ums and Fals:



Woot! A Fal! but WTF can I do w/ a Mal?

Sweet!!! Another Lem FINALLY! But an IST? CRAP! I need UMs!!!


Now I have a big choice and I need advice for my merc. I need to decide: Upped eth shaftstop, Upped duriels shell (non-eth), or treachery in 507 def armor I have currently (or wait for a better one.. I found eth dusk shroud but cubed 4 sockets ).
eth SS: ~2200 def, DR 30%, no resists
upped duriels: lots of resists, cannot be frozen, ~1600 - 1500 def (Forgot exact #... I did the calc earlier and didn't write it down. Oh well)
treachery: IAS galore, massive resists, no CBF, low def

Here is his gear and some random other finds and updates:



I think I'm gonna UP the Duriel's.. CBF is huge, and I could also use it on my toon if I wanted to ditch the ravenfrost for MF runs. HORK!

But.. ISO opinions... This is only the second frigging lem I found despite the other crazy drops.

For running countess I've been equipping Sanders Riprap, a 30 FRW Prismatic circlet, and an amulet w/ teleport charges in case I get blocked or surrounded. I also have a great map. When I get to L5, or door to it, I TP back and swap in MF helm, boots and amulet. Works wonders!

This post was edited by DManZ on Nov 28 2011 12:35am

I have made throw barbs in the past and they are probably my all time favorite character. I can tell you right now that hell is gonna be exactly that. A throw barb is powerful in norm and nightmare but once you get to hell you are gonna have major problems damage wise, and you better stay well away from any boss with LE FE or LE fanat might, or any dolls, etc. Let your merc take em and throw from a large distance. I've been done in a couple times by these bosses when I played a HC throw barb, which was probably in 1.10 lol. The explosion dmg may be scaled down now but it will still rape you and hitting them during stun lock, fhr lock will still cause it as well. Don't get lax, that's when they will get you. I've been killed by such Extra Fast Might LE FE Devilkin bosses in Tower Act1. Also Underground Passage can be dangerous. Stay away from Unique Dolls like the plague. No block = 100% they fuck you up. Watch out for Flayer Dungeon for sure and stay out of Swampy Pit. Use your range to your advantage, that's what puts throw above frenzy defense wise.

Now as far as weapons the best way to get non eth is to shop vendors. It's very tedious and could take awhile, but that's how it goes. If you aren't allowing yourself to shop vendors you are in for a tough time, unless you get some great luck mfing. Fara is the first vendor you can shop elite weps from. She sells WingedAxe, WingedKnife, and GhostGlaive. Anya and Malah are best to shop from but can't get there without the weps, makes a conundrum. I doubt players 8 will be an option in hell without an elite cruel, maybe not even then. Been awhile since I have played a throw barb even though they were my fav char, and there is a reason you don't see many around. The damage is just way scaled back in hell and you have to wait on eth replenish to repair. If you don't wanna wait, put points in frenzy and frenzy with em while they repair. You may never find an eth elite replenish so just try to make do and make it to Fara for an elite cruel or hope you get lucky and find a good unique.

I'll be tracking and rooting for ya. May start one myself, I'm tiring of the same ol and about to quit battle.net for the umpteenth time. GL you two.

This post was edited by Hoaryhag on Nov 28 2011 04:06am

First things first



Correctus! I found a demon limb off nm baal, which has helped me incredibly in hell.






Coming up, updates and comments. I'm sorry for the lack of updates recently! Im a busy fella

Short reminder of where we was at with my thrower barb in last update



Moving along to save the 5 barbarians. The first cage was PACKED with uniques, 3 x packs and 1 x champion pack, lol!




Third cage was easier, my 15 mates saved and qual khek gave me my reward... yay runes...



Moving forward, met one of my favourite superuniques that is guarding the entrance. For some reason I believe he has great chance to drop good stuf. I don't know why, because he doesn't seem any special lol.

The rescue of Anya. Anya has a special place in my diablo heart. She gave me a 42x ed 20ias rare grand matron bow for saving her once, which was realms #2 rare bow at the time. And she looks like she could be hot, if she wasnt a virtual character...

Here we go... lets see how hard this will be



Really, anya nightmare is the first place you meet "real" souls/gloams I kind of feel like. sure they exist in act4 nm, but there theyre weak. Here theyre pretty strong, even with 75%lr
This one was a bugger



Frozenstein is ALWAYS a pain in NM/HELL with untwinked characters, with his extra fast and cold enchanted. Nice damage dealer too with his stun etc.
But my Howl sorted the game out, and I pulled it off without any real danger

Before I went on to get revenge on Nihlatak, I mfed alot on Pindleskin. I was running scared to face Nihlatak, as I've lost many hc chars to this bugger in the past. But I read up on him on the web, and apparantly he isnt any danger any more in nightmare, and also heavily nerfed in hell. I knew this but thought he was still alot worse even today.
Was never any real threat, and his c/e took 1/12 of my hp tops per hit.

And down he goes


Lidless wall drop, as I showed you on some pages back. Shame it is of no use for me...




Moving along to face the ancients a second time, to see wether I am worthy to enter the worldstone chamber on nightmare diff

Let's go!




I think I was pretty lucky with the mods spawned on them. Also neither of them was immune to anything, which doesnt help my meele char tho...

A picture that depicts the battle. Me stacking alot of potions, Me running out of throwing weps very quickly, my merc acting meat tank:



And down they go, went smooth and safe. I was mostly leaping around and doing some double swing inbetween etc





Baal, im coming for you!

Reached and cleaned the throne room. The first wave was as always




Second wave was prolly the more annoying of the five, except for last wave which is usually the hardest, especially for non AoE chars/freezing chars etc
merc targeted bone fuckers whatever I did, and I didnt have CBF and huge life at the boss


Only problem i ever have with third wave is hydras and merc after the wave is beaten^^ No problems this time around