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Sep 23 2008 11:43am
Repost due to an inappropriate external link.

Added information on Nith, strategies on fighting him, and how to deal with those pesky Tomb Vipers that seem to kill your "gosu" chars.
Corrected a few minor errors.

Table of Contents
- [1] Rush to the Halls of Vaught
- [2] Well, Hel-Lo there, Nith !
- [3] Time to Die ?
- [4] "GOSU char" was slain by Tomb Viper


In what follows, the indicated directions are with respect to the centre of the map (the location of each entrance).


[1] Rush to the Halls of Vaught

Method #1: The red portal next to Anya in Harrogath
When you enter the Halls of Anguish / Halls of Pain, there are 3 possible spots for the stairs leading to the Halls of Pain / Halls of Vaught,
  • North, at the top
  • South West corner
  • South, at the bottom
The red portal will close only if you have both quest killed Nith and activated the Halls of Pain waypoint. Remember, game quest status is
always set by the game creator. So the portal might still be missing when you join a game, even if you haven't done both of the above.

Method #2: Halls of Pain waypoint
The location of the waypoint (WP) uniquely determines the location of the stairs leading to the Halls of Vaught,
  • WP North West icon_pointr.gif stairs North, at the top
  • WP South East icon_pointr.gif stairs South West corner
  • WP East icon_pointr.gif stairs South, at the bottom
This is the fastest legitimate way to reach the HoV.


[2] Well, Hel-Lo there, Nith !

Ever wondered about those "wall paintings" in the corridors of the HoV ? Most of them are situated on the same walls, in the same order,
save one whose sole placement reveals in which direction Nith is,

< Red evil eyes - Nihlathak is watching you ... >



In general, Nith may be in any of the 4 directions, NW, NE, SW, or SE, each corresponding to a certain placement of the red evil eyes.
Below are the 4 wall spots to be checked (notice the locations on the automap).


< NW (left) and NE (right) >




< SW (left) and SE (right) >



The red evil eyes and other wall patterns are found in almost every corridor in the Halls of Vaught. But only the evil eyes can appear
on one of the 4 wall spots depicted above. Wherever you find them is the direction in which you will find Nith.


[3] Time to Die ?

It most certainly will be the death of you if your equipment does not match the situation you are facing - or if you rush straight for Nith
without having any plan in mind.

Nihlathak (Animal)
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/monsters/act5-nihlathak.shtml

Nith is usually an easy kill himself once you get him isolated; trouble is handling Nith, his minions, and the annoying adversaries at once.

Tips and additional information
  • Nith's Corpse Explosion deals half physical damage, half fire damage, based on ~ 20 % of monster hit points.
  • Nith is very keen on using CE if you fight him from a distance. Try to fight him in melee range whenever possible.
  • Necromancers using CE can blow up corpses way faster than Nith due to less casting time. Use this at your advantage.
  • Items with "Slain Monsters Rest in Peace" mod (e.g. Nature's Peace) prevent Nith from using CE whenever the wielder kills.
  • RIP works only if the wielder kills. If your merc has no RIP and kills a monster, Nith will still be able to explode the corpse.
  • Mercs may acquire RIP from wearing either Tyrael's Might (Sacred Armor) or wielding a Lawbringer ('AmnLemKo') sword.
  • Hell Temptress (succubi) are immune to physical (100 % DR) in Hell. Trigger AD or Decrepify to remove the immunity.
  • Nith's minions are cold immune. Cold sorc or Hdin with A3 Cold merc will thus not have to worry as much about CE.
  • Frenzied minions that manage to explode themselves before they are killed leave a corpse for Nith to explode.
Be sure to have teh evil grin on your face and kindly beg Nith for a Key of Destruction while smacking him to pieces.

Key drop odds you say ? Leaving those to Morph > http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=15005253&st=0&#entry82466930


[4] "GOSU char" was slain by Tomb Viper

So, your insane char just got killed by a few innocent "noob" vipers ? And again ? Damn, that really sucks, eh ? Rebuild !!!!11 No, wait ...
Perhaps your char would be even more "gosu" if you figured how to deal with them ?

Tomb Viper (Animal)
Granted, these poisonous serpents can be awfully annoying; a fact which has subsequently led people into suggesting they are bugged.
Well, they are not; what we are experiencing is a significant amount of frame based physical damage.

Quote (MicahW - Blizzard forum moderator @ Battle.net Forums)

        Q u o t e:
        Wheres the fix on those pesky Tomb Viper in Nihlathak place?

    Working as intended.

Gta-Maloy] had this to say (Question 6)
http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=d2-general&t=1312543&p=1&#post1312543

Quote (Gta-Maloy - quoted @ Battle.net Forums)
A percentage of their charge damage is included in the secondary cloud of poison. The AoE cloud. This means that you could avoid the initial poison from the spear but still get the physical + poison damage of the cloud should you run into it.

THE CLOUD IS NOT VISIBLE. This is why many people think they get killed by something that isn't really there. The cloud will stay about five seconds AFTER the initial spear's cloud vanishes. If you do not move in this time, the second cloud will not effect you. Getting knocked back will also not trigger the second cloud. You will get poisoned by the viper and get a nice percentage of life taken away from you but it won't be over time.

Best thing to do is stand still when they fire or run past them at high velocity. The cloud will only form a second or two after the spear is thrown, this gives more than enough time for a character to run past them. Should you need to stop... stop and don't run or walk until five seconds after all the clouds have gone.

Oh well, in that case we just make sure our toon and his/her merc have max poison resistance and high %DR equipment. Then all is good ?

This is (still) what many people think they should do. But while the %DR ( "Damage Reduced by X %" ) from equipment such as Shaftstop, Stormshield, and Vampire Gaze
works wonders against severe physical hits, these vipers deal "small" amounts of damage every frame (25 frames = 1 second). And %DR is not the way to counter this.
Instead, we should use #DR ( "Damage Reduced by Y" ) equipment.

Main sources of #DR
  • Sol Rune (7)
  • 'Magic Amulet / Circlet' of Life Everlasting (10-25)
  • 'Magic Body Armor / Circlet / Shield' of Amicae (8-15)
  • Arkaine's Valor (10-15)
  • The Gladiator's Bane (15-20)
  • Gerke's Sanctuary (11-16)
  • Nature's Peace (7-11)
If you get somewhere in the vicinity of 40-50 DR, you should be able to just about nullify the frame based damage (of course, you may still be poisoned).

Yell if you see any errors. Or just throw me a general comment or two.
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Sep 24 2008 02:39am
Space.
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Sep 24 2008 02:43am
havent heard about the 2nd paragraph, nice!
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Sep 24 2008 03:29am
Quote (WoeToYouOhEarthAndSea @ Wed, Sep 24 2008, 08:43am)
havent heard about the 2nd paragraph, nice!


ye, same. Good job buddy
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Sep 24 2008 06:32am
Very very good "guide"! smile.gif
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Sep 24 2008 09:28am
^^
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Sep 24 2008 09:51am
Okay .
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Sep 24 2008 10:05am
Quote (ultima1 @ Wed, Sep 24 2008, 11:51am)
Okay .


Spam much?

Faelwen, try pming Master_Zoen . He has a video on youtube that he made for finding Nihlathak.
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Sep 24 2008 10:36am
Quote (druidking88 @ Wed, 24 Sep 2008, 18:05)
Faelwen, try pming Master_Zoen  .  He has a video on youtube that he made for finding Nihlathak.

Done.

He posted that video in the old guide, if I'm not mistaken.

I still got the link here, but I'll leave it for him to decide if he wants to add it or not.
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Sep 25 2008 09:01am
"Nihlathak Made Easy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThsFxxEGH28

I need to re-record this since I have a much better computer that doesn't lag as much from recording.
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