Hi all. My previous characters:

Fury Druid, couldn't update because thread got locked. The ending is found in the 2nd link.
https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=103874698&f=161
https://www.purediablo.com/forums/threads/single-pass-untwinked-p8-fury-druid-fenrir.195038/

Frenzy Barb
https://www.purediablo.com/forums/threads/entering-hell-single-pass-untwinked-frenzy-any-advice.22119/

After completing my single pass P8 Frenzy Barb and Fury Druid, it's time to attempt another character that I never played, a Stafezon. As with my other runs so far, I like the challenge of playing characters that are weapon dependent. Gear becomes irrelevant if the bulk of your damage comes from spells.

Artemis will be doing this untwinked, P8 and single pass. The latter means I cannot re-run any areas to MF etc. This forces me to think and plan about equipment progressions, while also leaving me flexible to adjust depending on what drops I get.

Rules
D2 1.14d
SC
Untwinked. Only exception is if I find an Ohm/Lo rune. If that's a case, I may allow her to access my Frenzy Barb's Jah rune to make Faith/Ice, only after A4 Hell. I really doubt it will happen though, so it should be a pure untwinked run.
P8 at all times.
Single pass. No countess runs, no MF. If shit drops happen, I'll have to deal with it.

The Plan
1. About 100 points Vita, rest Dex.

2. Will rely on max Valk to slowly carry me to Hell. Heard that she is quite powerful. Will start getting Strafe to 6 in NM (for max arrows) when I should have Insight Partizan to sustain the mana. MA to deal with PIs.

3. 6 points in Critical Strike, 7 points in MA, 1 point each in DEA. From level 30, start to max Valk first while concurrently getting Pierce to 5. Max Penetrate next. At around Level 50 finishing A5 Norm, I should be halfway to maxing Penetrate. At around level 60++ NM, I will start getting Strafe to 6. I will then max out MA, before getting DEA to about 5 points each. Should end the game at level 89.

4. I will be following jiansonz's guide for early stages to maximise MF. That means PTopax Helm/Armour, MF rings/amulet/gloves/boots.

5. Weapon wise, I will be relying on Gemmed (or Jewelled) Bows for Norm. From NM onwards, I should be relying on Edge bows. End game Bow should be Harmony, since a some Ko runes should drop based on experience. Dream weapon with be Faith or WWS or any other cool unique Bows/Crossbows.

6. As soon as I'm able to, I think I will make a Peace armour. It spawns level 15 Valk, which allows me a high level Valk which might be more than what I'm able to put in at that time. Not the most important.

7. Some time in Hell, I will start crafting for KB gloves. Preferably with IAS/Bow mods. Or I might use Clegaw. We'll see.

8. Merc will be A2 Blessed Aim with Insight. I heard CTH is a big issue. If it isn't, I may use Holy Freeze instead.


My only concern is that MA might not be enough to deal with PIs. I understand that only 20% of the damage is converted to magic, which sounds very low. If that's the case, I may have to end up doing A5 Merc with Lawbringer (Lem is very obtainable), which sounds terrible since this is not D2R. It also means no Insight, which may bring about mana issues.

Artemis is currently already in A2 Normal. I doubt there will be anything cool to update till NM onwards, so the next update may be a while.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or advices!

​​​

Currently got my Horadric Staff. Onward to Palace now. Just posting here to document the progression so far.

This will be my bow for a while, until I get enough Flawless Rubies or Envy jewels, or maybe make a Zephyr? Not sure.



The start has been fairly smooth. Gambled a 25% Gloves. Got a 11% and 14% MF ring, 8% MF Ammy, had a gem Shrine so I'm currently sporting a Topaz+Flawed Topaz x 2 BP. Boots has 18% MF, so I could do with a better roll.

As per jiansonz guide, I'm currently trying to gamble MF circlets. Very costly though. Also slowly trying to get a Savage Partizan. No hurry since merc doesn't have the strength yet haha. Currently using Savage Poleaxe with +17 Max damage which looks good.

This post was edited by Ducko on Apr 27 2025 04:12am

I'm really taking my time with this character. Don't wanna feel burn out too quickly.

Nothing major happened so far. Carrying on my character as planned. A first unique bow dropped. Useless, but hopully it's a sign for things to come. WWS would totally solve my potential PI problem. Some of the other unique exceptional bows would be good pre-Harmony. Buriza would be a dream.



Duriel wasn't too hard. I just kept spamming pots to keep my Merc alive while slowly chipping his health. Being a ranged character is awesome cuz his HF aura doesn't affect me haha. Drops were typical Duriel trash though.



As per jiansonz guide, all my current gold is spent trying to get a MF circlet. 30k+ gold each time, which is not easy to save up. I haven't got it yet, but I did gamble this rare.



Usually, I think it's rubbish. But the 25-56 Fire damage seems helpful at this stage for a character that hasn't invested much in Dex and have no skills to boost her damage. It's almost double damage for me. I'll keep it for a while!

Next update...A3!

This post was edited by Ducko on May 15 2025 04:10am

As I said before, I doubt I have anything interesting to report until at least NM, where all the better gears may drop. Nonetheless, a little update.

Norm A3 is done with no hiccups.



Only upgrade so far is this 35% MF Amulet. Perfect roll for its suffix.



I've been spending all my diamonds trying to roll a Savage Partizan. Sadly, zero so far. I still have time though because merc needs about 8 levels more for the Str requirement. Topaz progress is good so far though

This post was edited by Ducko on May 28 2025 09:54pm

One vital piece of information I have to give you in your run.

Clear EVERY monster in EVERY area from Act 1 town and every Cave, Den areas if you are NOT re-running for drops. I have done this, HOWEVER, I started with stashed items and clearing EVERY monster ONCE from normal to Hell ... you will have an issue with Arreat Summit before getting to Worldstone Level 1 in Hell difficulty.

But, good luck and have fun... I was lucky to have Witchwild bow and Treachers Armor or whatever it is called. And I was not a Strafezon.

EDIT: sorry... I was Hardcore.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on May 28 2025 11:35pm

Yes of course. I do a full clear. Need to maximise my drop chances.

I'm really concerned about hell, and I have little experience with a strafezon. We'll see when I reach there.

From my LoD days playing bowazons, and prefer Strafe over Multi, I came to the conclusion that a Valk is needed... thus Maxed. Now, there is extra Skill points and where to distribute them.

You have two Tank choices: Merc or Valk, or have Two Tanks (both) ... so skill points to max Valk ... 1 base Decoy for distraction keeping you safe to strafe or get into a position to strafe better with Pierce (100%) and physical damage from equipment and charms.

Here is an old LoD tip about Cold damage charms (small charms are better in my opinion) ... on top of the cold damage, they have a "cold damage SLOW effect" (you will need to research this with D2:R and old LoD mechanics). Basically, any small charms with cold damage helps even if you are Strafing as it slows monsters.

Allocate Pierce Skills appropriate to other +skill items, this is universal for other skills outside of the Passive Tree.

Hell difficulty normally has MORE Fire Immunes from Act 1 to Act 5, yes, Cold plains are mostly Cold Immunes... however Strafe is physical... so you want some form of Amp (excluding having Gavel of pain on switch) or you might gamble a Life Tap Wand for switch for Merc + Valk and yourself.

Think out of the box as you slowly grind, I am sure you know this, I am just re-affirming what you want to do. Oh... angelic items are godly in untwinked runs.

Thank you for the tips!

Yes my intention is to get at least L17 Valk for War Pike. Not sure about maxing it since I don't have many free skill points

Np ... and that is up to you (Max Valk or not) I like max Valk with + Skill items, Tanks and kills effectively, however mana cost is high is you don't have much Mana Leech. I am not sure where your other skills points are going to, but have fun in your Run.

Cold dmg modifiers have a 1 sec slow effect per Affix & Suffix which Stack ... In Normal Difficulty 10 x 1-3 cold dmg small charms = 10 sec duration, also if any of your items have cold dmg, it also stacks. In Nightmare, I believe duration is Halved ... so it would be 5 seconds for 10 small charms and in Hell it would be 2.5 seconds ... however, that is still decent.

Another quick update.

Act 4 is done. Again, nothing too difficult.

Sadly no rune luck for Forge. Could use an early Amn for Peace...



A random Champion dropped this. It's not useful, but I'm sure it's a sign. I'm manifesting good Unique Bow drops! Pray for WWS/WF/Buriza etc



Diablo wasn't tough either. Just that Merc and Valk couldn't stand his lightning attacks. Burned a lot of mana pots just to slowly wither him down. Nothing great but we move on to Act 5!



This post was edited by Ducko on May 30 2025 12:33pm