Sarina drops a pretty cute hand axe that we'll be using.



Never underestimate the usefulness of T- ...wait... Usually it works on these bats if you cast it twice, but for some reason, no matter how much spamming I do, these idiots sleep through my screaming this time.



Sweet. Travincal gives us our first gem shrine. Unfortunately, we haven't yet had any flawless rubies, but we do now.

Get used to seeing a lot of this place. Probably the best horker location. It's particularly good for flushing out charms, jewels, gold, and the occasional gem.

Gonna save these jewels instead of throwing them in the crafting pile. They might serve some purpose if I find something appropriate to socket with them.



Mephisto might be a little bit painful to have to farm in NM, if for no other reason than he has 0% leech effectiveness, but unfortunately it's kind of a necessity for any character.

Was excited to see this double axe until I saw Knockback, which is something I hate having on any character that's not a bowazon. So, nope.

This post was edited by Aphex on Feb 25 2020 04:27pm

Begin Act 4



Forgot to shoot frenzy damage, but frenzy isn't leveled to the point where it's that useful anyway. At this point I'm taking a few swings with frenzy to boost attack speed and switching to double swing.

Damage is currently pretty bad. 38-118 is mostly fire damage, and we're entering an act with lots of fire resistant monsters.

Our own resistances are quite bad as well. Soon we'll be reaching level 30 and will put a point into natural resistance, but they'll still be rather low.



...Well, my taunt is ready.



He was playing gate-keeper. Izual is something I just don't understand. He does no damage, and has an enormous health pool. This is a moment in D2 you just hold down left click and take out your phone.

Some rando dropped this. Nice to see war axes dropping. It's not great but we'll use it for now.



Is there any truth to the superstition that repairing the hammer improves your drops? No. Will that stop me from doing it? No.

One flawless ruby is good enough for me.



It's definitely time to start thinking about our defense. This is with Shout active, which is doubling defense but only lasting 40 seconds.

Just after the Vizier, we ding level 30 and get some much needed +all res. Fairly good timing as fire's getting sketchy and we're about to take on D.

Got a generously placed fire res shrine just before the 3rd seal.



Diablo in Norm requires some attentiveness. In NM and Hell, his Lightning Inferno originates a small distance away from the character model, so you can stand right in front of him and not be hit by this attack. For some reason, in Normal, it originates where you'd think it should, as I'm sure you all know. So, lots of dancing around, as he spams this attack A LOT.



Eventually we grind him down and pick his corpse, as one does when one deports Satan himself from the mortal world.

The boots are ok but I stick with our mf boots. We can do better, and I'm not really hurting for poison res at this time. The gloves are cute, but it's going to take something pretty big to replace Bloodfists.
The helmet is quite nice, but I decide to stick with Tarnhelm for the time being. We'll stash it for later, when the attack rating bonus matters more and we feel like we need some extra survivability, which +1 all skills also provides rather handily.

This post was edited by Aphex on Feb 25 2020 07:32pm

No chance unless wielding Sander's Superstition.


Most probably intended design, otherwise melee range characters would be at a serious disadvantage in Nightmare and Hell where the lightning inferno is way more potent.
The second image on the following page displays the safe ''circular disk(s)'' for Nightmare and Hell difficulties: https://www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Diablo

That Assault Helmet has triple durability and is thus a failed Assault Helmet (none exists).
I would sell it; Tarnhelm is simply better: +1 to All Skills applies +8 to e.g. Axe Mastery +% Attack Rating, so already there it beats the 5% Bonus to Attack Rating modifier.

Hmm... Thank you for an idea for a goof screenshot edit for NM forge. 8P



And thank you for reminding me about the Basin. It's served me well in the past as a resource for technical info when the Summit falls short.



Yeah, not far into A5 I tossed it on and off to compare stats in the character tab. Didn't take long for hindsight to kick in. I soon after found a circlet that boasts enhanced damage, dexterity, and a much greater additive to attack rating, and even it doesn't really hold up to +skills. Axe Mastery and Frenzy for ar and dmg (also Double Swing if I should happen to use it), Natural Resists, Iron Skin, all the warcries, Berserk in the future. Hell, even leaping further is nice, and of course a nice chunk of mf. I haven't played a barb thoroughly in quite some time.

Also thanks for reminding me about the triple durability rolls. It's always nice to check and see if an item you want the unique version of has this, so you can come to the realization that it would have dropped had an enemy of the appropriate level dropped it, and then stew on it for a while. I believe 4 set Slayer Guards dropped before Arreat's on the last barb I played. But, these weren't failed uniques, that was just me being unlucky. I digress.

Thanks for staying a while and having a read. I always appreciate it.

Begin Act 5



Whoops. Wrong game.



As much as I want to start crafting axes as soon as possible, I've decided to wait for Nagas of ilvl 50+. Such magic Nagas will be shoppable not too far into nm. Our clvl is such that we should be able to reliably gamble axes of the appropriate level soon, but hoping for Nagas this way is far-fetched. One benefit to Paladins is that they hit higher attack frames with most axes than the Barbarian can by default. With the barb, only Hand Axe and War Axe type axes achieve this, if I remember correctly. Take a shot every time I say "axe".



Look at this bitch just standing here. No respect for seniority.

Slayer Guard would be fantastic, but they were likely double durability Avenger Guard (Item Level < 37), Avenger Guard (Item Level > 36) or double durability Slayer Guard.