Back when I was picking beans in Guatemala, ...


... my first D2 character was a SP Nec Summoner with Poison Nova, he was beloved and what kept him from perfection, wait for it LOL... was the TO belt. You get the drift.
Years have passed, i played much online, traded most of the time ingame and in the big german forum (just felt more real/legit... but to each his own, playstyle of others never bothered me/the fun i had with the game). While i've been registered her since ages, i never went after the mighty fg, mainly because... well, without the grind, without being p*ss poor at ladder start, it just wasn't motivating for me. Never really played PvP, which for sure is a difference maker.

The last years i kinda started every 2nd ladder and built some sort of exotic char and that was it... the last one was a Riftsin for example. I'm at a point now where i'm kind of out of options... buuut i'm just not done yet haha, so why not kicking it oldschool with a longterm project, SP/SF Necro and meet some similar minded nerds here. I don't know, put on some good album and play some D2, it just calms me down so well, in some way beyond "gaming".
I'll try to be creative and set up some contests here and there and get rid of the fg which is left in case there's interest!

I'm aware this will make it less interesting for MOST, but i just want to have a good time, so there's no fancy ruleset here really.
Softcore, Player 4-8 (except final aim content, maybe LK, see below), extended stash, pure SF, Ladder RWs enabled, Clone/HF yessir. D2SE with PlugY 10.00, 1.13c LOD Vanilla.

Not sure how the road's gonna be like, but i'm sure where i want it to end... where it all started, in Tristram, Über Diablo, surrounded by the bodies of his slainb brothers, feebly whispering before the final blow "I... can't feel my legs... Keyser".

Aight, let's start with a little overview, this is where i am currently at item-wise. I just finished Anya normal and am about to make some Eldritch/Shenk/Pindle runs to gear up a bit. So far slow but steady, just a safe build.
Amplify Damage, Decrepify, Golem (Diablo was nerve-wrecking, because he just sizzled my skels, so it took me a while, little guy here was a nice help though). Maxed "Raise Skeletons" first, just some points in mastery, because i wanted to max the numbers of skels first.
This is basically phase one, when turning to nightmare i'm going for Lore, Insight and Spirit (i won't sacrifice a socket quest though on a CS from normal cows) in order to get mana set to spam the Corpse Explosion a bit more. 1 point so far, so no range, too.

From this point on it gets more interesting and further progress will be documented exactly here... and now, let's grind a bit!



This post was edited by VerbalKint on Feb 3 2018 03:16pm

Following

Sweet, welcome, my man!

The Pindle/Eldritch/Shenk runs did not get me anywhere really, still picked up a new armor and a nice ring which helps with the corpse explosion frequency. The CE helps to make my peace with P8 really - like i said before, the Summon Nec is just such a safe char, where melees experience a nice challenge, so far for me it just slowed things down and made me even more mana-dependend. The higher EXP gain is very welcome though.
Looking far into the future, the lack of +skills via skillers might have some influences on items and where i put points - for a smooth experience, it's just nice to have range on curses and the CE. But well, regarding the CE, i prefer to max it anyway, rest skills in Bone Armor (or better, it's Syns) is a - very boring - given and not much you can get out of the Poison tree. Homunculus or Darkforce will help with the range of the curses.

As you can see, i moved on now and the next challenge will be the Ancients. No more grinding before Andariel, should get exciting from there! Matching to the "Usual Suspects" theme here, take a look at the map here... "the truth [really] is always in the last place you look" haha.

Well, Decrepify is just straight up cheating lol, blasted trough the throne plus Baal with one set of skels, Lister and gang and the big guy just took some time.
DOPE quest drop as you can see, Sig belt. Angelic armor (love this set) and the good old Tarnhelm! The Nec shield was crap... and look at the gloves lol.

First look at the NM resistances, wiiild... +75 fire haha, +24 cold, -3 lightning, -22 poison. Tarnhelm's MF will be nice for Andy, still i'd like to get me a Lore helmet, too, of the Countess has a Sol for me. Can't wait to run Andy!




I think i have to take a look at my Glide settings, no idea why the screenshots are that messy.

This post was edited by VerbalKint on Feb 4 2018 04:27pm

Perfect start to NM, Blood Raven directly dropped this badboy here for my merc and things are very smooth now. Due to the undead buddies around him he doesn't really need life leech.
Currently about to enter Tristram, gonna edit all further progress in this post while watching Super Bowl.

Update on the drop front, IK helmet and Sig shield, now just missing helmet and armor in order to complete the full set.




Updates:

- SOL and Venom Ward (perfect for merc vs Andy) in Tristram!!! Many fire emojis.
- New gloves (old still in first screenshot) - for the shortterm future, basically mf/gold plus 10 lres. Fres not maxed anymore, but i like this new balance better. Countess down, ETH... meh.
- Tamoe, 4s 14ed War Scythe... low Insight, here i come!

This post was edited by VerbalKint on Feb 4 2018 06:35pm

Sweet baby Jesus, Jail 3... Sig armor drop. I haven't even reached Andy NM and i am just one piece away from full Signon set, how crazy is that? I'm not intending to wear it really tho' lol.

Inner Cloister WP - check! I'm now doing some Countess runs before grinding Andy... because... well... i lack the fn TIR for Insight.

Just three attempts, here we go! Let's blast the CE! ANDY!!!




Aight, the quest drop wasn't too exciting... is it bugged when i do the usual stuff in singleplayer, too? Let's see....



This post was edited by VerbalKint on Feb 4 2018 08:07pm

Alright, i have to admit... Andy NM grinding, it started well with Frosties on first attempt (mana's good with the Insight tho'), took some time, too... i decided to move forward. Progress was still smooth and while the Nec itself is vulnerable, i just have this big mob to hide behind.
If you ask me where i want to be right now, well, A1 hell, start with some slow Mausoleum runs. Some NM cows before that to get a 4s CS for Spirit perhaps. Get an elite Armor in Mausoleum and go for Smoke (NefLum). Then slowly progress to The Pit. This is where i expect things going down for a while. I expect more Pits than the standard Mephs really. Spend some time in the Pit and with improving gear, get Andy in the rotation.


Raise Skeletons and Mastery is now maxed, i think i'm level 54 (EDIT: 58 already). To make steps forward, i need +skills now. 10 points in CE now and now i'm investing in the mages first. They are fragile and a bit nerve-wrecking pre highend gear, sure, but will make things more smooth, for example the freeze. CE is just range. Duriel took time but was no threat, decrepify ftw, but i'm a bit sceptical when it comes to Diablo on P8, just sizzles the mob and then there i am. But we'll see.

Things i'm looking forward to... well CB ont he merc would be dope, i'd celebrate a Gully drop. Or Rattlecage. Naj's Puzzler woudl be dope, just for certain areas wher you want to take the whole mob with you or when you want to place it as a whole on one point. Maybe that's just me after enduring Maggot Lair and Arcane Sanctuary which is just BRUUU-TAL with a Summoner. I just got rid of the skels in the end, let the merc draw first blood (and even that was tricky sometimes) and then CE'd like there is no tomorrow.

Oh, before i forget it... look what i found, i'm dying to make an Iron Golem with 75% slow out of it, but the little guy would still be too fragile at the moment. But soon!



Otherwise no exciting drops to post here. Just downloaded some solid 2h of NBA podcasts lol, i'm ready for the Jungle - let's go! Thanks for reading, guys, hope my mediocre english doesn't make it too rough.

This post was edited by VerbalKint on Feb 5 2018 02:58pm

Meph down, dropped Stormstrike and the Angelic amu! Decrepify strikes again, it took ~4-5 mins though.
I've started this without SP experience, i'm wondering if i should allow myself to re-do bossruns with P1 instead of P8. On the other, as mentioned before, things would look very different with some CB on my merc. Just need to make that happen i guess.