Frealaf, HC, SP, clvl 47, Bulging Biceps Barbarian, N Rogue Encampment
Defeating demons has never looked so good!
Frealaf has rescued his brother Folcwald and cleared Act V at players 7!
As expected, Frealaf's Steel Flails (w/Frenzy) were not stacking up well against players 7 foes in Act V. Fortunately, Diablo had supplied a solution in the form of a 232% ED Bonesnap! Alright, when you're a character that depends on weapon based damage you work with what you've got. 1 Point Berserk shall be our path forward! And it worked ... but as expected, the attack speed was slow ... painfully slow. With my only source of IAS being 10% on my rare gloves, that got me a 19 frame attack with the Bonesnap. But, the raw damage was pretty good ... and would have been much better if I could have gotten my hands on a Sol Rune and upgraded the Bonesnap
. Oh well. All's well that ends well. We got through Act V and got our Sol Rune from the cows.
In terms of the journey, there's not much to tell. Just lots of very slow swinging by Frealaf. Folcwald the merc (er, brother), was a bit more interesting. This was my first encounter with the new Act V merc, and I'd have to rate him a solid: 'meh'. I'll agree that granting Battle Cry to the Act V merc helps with his fantasy concept, but I'm not sure that it makes him a better companion. My swing speed was so slow that I was using Taunt, a lot, to keep foes from moving out of range in the time that it took my swing to complete. The merc tossing out Battle Cry could get in the way of that. Also, I wanted to use Life Tap at the Ancients ... the merc kept overriding it with Battle Cry. Not a big deal in Normal ... but I can see issues arising as things get harder. Perhaps I would have been more impressed if I wasn't playing a Barbarian and already could cast Battle Cry anytime I wanted ... but probably not. If having an Act V merc wasn't part of the tournament that I chose, I would have dropped him after a few minutes for a good old trusty Act II merc. I suppose the real test as to whether of not he's been improved will be if I get the chance to equip him with a decent and (previously) popular weapon like Lawbringer. I suspect that he chooses to cast Battle Cry often enough to make the ctc Decrepify moot ... but there's only one way to find out for sure ... perhaps I'll get the chance!
But for now,
Finds:
Here's the set/uniques that resulted from a players 7 full clear of Act V:
(With 198 mf when the Barb killed, and 272 mf when the merc killed.)
Sigon's Guard, Tower Shield (Bloody Foothills)
Milabrega's Diadem, Crown (Frigid Highlands)
Cleglaw's Tooth, Long Sword (Pit of Acheron)
Isenhart's Horns, Full Helm (Pit of Acheron)
Cleglaw's Tooth, Long Sword (Crystalline Passage)
Isenhart's Parry, Gothic Shield (Frozen River)
Berserker's Hatchet, Double Axe (Frozen River)
Sigon's Wrap, Plated Belt (Glacial Trail) <-- Now if I could just get the gloves and greaves ...
Stormstrike, Short Battle Bow (Nihlathak's Temple)
Tearhaunch, Greaves (Gambled) <-- I was trying for Sigon's. I got close
.
Milabrega's Diadem, Crown (Frozen Tundra)
Angelic Sickle, Sabre (The Ancients' Way)
Lance of Yaggai, Spetum (Throne of Destruction)
Death's Touch, War Sword (Baal)
Sparking Mail, Chain Mail (Baal)
So nothing too interesting there, past the Sigon's ... I'm always game for three piece Sigon's
...
The good stuff came from the cows:
Hotspur, Boots (The Secret Cow Level) <-- A TC 3 off a pop-able! Useful too!
Arcanna's Head, Skull Cap (The Cow King)
Dimoak's Hew, Bardiche (The Cow King)
But more importantly, I found a couple helpful runes! (Act V didn't result in anything higher than an Ort.)
A new highest rune!
and moments later in the same spot ...
The Sol Rune I needed to upgrade the Bonesnap!
Which I did moments later:
Woohoo! That's a lot of magic damage for one hard point
. It was dropping cows in a single swing ... a single very slow swing. It's very tempting to take the Shael and socket it ... but I'm hoping to find better before Hell. And if I could get back to Frenzy that'd be great too! I have nine points in Double Swing that currently aren't doing me any good. Per tournament rules, I could respec once (before setting foot in Hell) ... but I'd rather avoid respecing if possible. Still, if NM comes to a close and this is all I've got ... but that's a long way off ... let's wait and see what happens!
Rich (BB code):
Tournament of Tournaments Participation and Score Table
D2V Forum Name Tournament Name+YR Class Level Location S&E HC/SC Score
---- ---------- ----------------- ----- ----- ---------- ---- ----- -----
D2R HanShotFirst BulgingBiceps2020 Barb 47 N Rogue Camp 0 HC 05
D2R Vang IgottheBlues2005 Asn 26 Great Marsh 0 HC 02
D2R Vildecor SUWorshipper2018 Ama 20 Lut Gholein 0 HC 01
D2R D4di56lu3 Committed2015 Ama 22 Lut Gholein 0 SC 01
D2R Cattleya 12 Labors 2011 Ama 01 Rogue Camp 0 SC 00
D2R Kstil3227 BrotherBear2004 Druid 01 Rogue Camp 0 HC 00
D2R skoolbus Naked 2007 Pally 01 Rogue Camp 0 HC 00
D2R Babyhell Overburdened 2019 Sorc 04 Cold Plains 0 SC 00
D2R coju 12 Labors 2011 Nec 00 Rogue Camp 0 SC 00
D2L D2DC 12 Labors 2011 Dru 00 Rogue Camp 0 SC 00
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Back to ashes (aka Deeds)
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Up next:
Time to see what a Bonesnap
War Club can do against the forces of NM. And perhaps I can find some additional IAS ...