Hardly-Able, The nekkid throw barb

Prelude

In honor of my recent transition through the curtain, and in honor of the uber leet cracked sash, I have created (well one was created before membership, but who's counting :P) two new softcore restricted characters. Their journey through Sanctuary will the subject of future posts (or tales hosted on my site).

For starters, let me describe the builds

Hardly_Able, wearer of the ABM cracked sash:

Double-Throw Nekkid Barbarian

Restrictions: No twinking, other than the vaunted ABM cracked sash Nekkid--No visible gear EVER. Non-visible gear limited to cracked sash, and cracked/crude, etc gloves and boots. No jewelry. (the non-visible gear limitations will last at least through normal--I will attempt to keep to this throughout the game). Charms are limited to what I find on the way.

Ms. Grimreaper

No-vit, Polearm-wielding Sorcy

Restrictions: No twinking, other than fast hit recovery charms. Spells limited to pre-reqs for enchant only, cold armors, and masteries (exceptions--static limited to slvl5, teleport, eshield, and telekinesis unlimited). Primary weapon must be a polearm, but she can use +skill staves and ranged weapons on the switch. No limitations on gear, other than she may NEVER even think of equipping a shield (shields are for wimps :P).

These two are intended to clear the game--nothing may be skipped. As of today, they are both in A2 normal (tales will follow). They may party, but will likely not play with any unrestricted chars--to date, I think I've only quested with one unrestricted char.

The tales of these two will be intertwined...at least as best as my feeble writing skills can manage. Who knows--the future may hold more tales after their journey is complete. :notme:

Normal

Brief update:

Hardly_Able is starting A4 normal, having walked his way through A2 and A3 with two deaths. A2 death was to the death nova of a cold-enchanted lightning bug in one of the false tombs, and the A3 death was to the inferno of a flayer shamen (this was should have been avoided). I probably could have avoided both deaths if I had distributed any points to vit (not a restriction on this guy...I am just doing it now to up the gain).

MsGrimReaper a quest or two into A3. As to her deaths, well there have been about 5 or 6 in the last act. I really need to play her alone for a while--for some reason she lives longer when not playing with others. :blush:

I have cropped most of the shots from their journey so far--I hope to have some more storyline and shots up by Christmas. My writing muse seems to have abandoned me for the time being.

Nightmare Experiences

Well, let's just say my muse has deserted me. I have loads of screenshots, but haven't yet put them up on my site.

Hardly_Able, the nekkid throwing barb, made it to the outer cloister waypoint in nightmare yesterday. His journey through A4 and A5 normal was mostly uneventful.

The journey in nightmare has been a bit more tedious. His luck with throwing weapons has been limited to one rare war javelin and one imbued war javelin. Those are the boss, or tough pack killing weapons, while the normal pair is a balanced knife and balanced axe. His travelling companion, a prayer merc, was lucky to get a rare ethereal pike drop.

As an example of his difficulty, it took me about three hours to get from the cold plains wp to the outer cloister. No deaths since A3 normal. Being a stubborn cuss, I have yet to add any points to vitality. That will likely change soon, as Hardly goes into hit recovery from a strong wind. His one relation to no-twink (other than his uber cracked sash) is a personal mule, which is used to store his crafting supplies (I plan to craft blood throwing axes for him when I get my hands on some exceptional magic ones).

One last note, Normal Baal dropped some completely useless items for Hardly--a Dwarf Star and a Kuko.

Nightmarish Experiences

Time for another update.

Hardly_Able finished (except for that traitorous Nihlathak) his nightmare quests last evening. His entire journey through nightmare was either solo, or partied with ShadowHM's no-skills daggerzon, InspiredHope (one exception, I think I was partied for Andy with another variant scum).

I'd love to say I proceeded with no deaths, but that was not the case. If I remember correctly, there were two deaths in A1, one in A2, two (one when body recovering) in A3, none in A4 and one in A5. I was not exactly keeping track, though. Body was recovered each time. Act 1 stared out tough, until I crafted a blood hurbat (exceptional axe). Another was crafted in A3 or A4. I hired a might merc in A2, to further improve damage.

The entire journey was extremely slow, even when Shadow and I partied. Grimward and taunt were used extensively, with Hardly puting up grimwards to establish safe retreat zones. Another nice merc weapon was found--this time a rare lance that got a perfect skull for [i]some[/i] leech. All and all, Haseen faired pretty well until A5, and even then the only time he'd take a quick dirt nap was when encountering large groups of archers, witches, and/or frenzytaurs.

And now on to the tale of the last part of Hardly_Able's journey through nightmare.

Before the finale last evening, Hardly had already travelled with InspiredHope to best the ancients and make his way to the waypoint on the second level of the Worldstone Keep. Being a stubborn sort, Hardly was unable to proceed to Baal without besting the Ancients again, solo. He knew this task would be difficult, since he had nearly run out of weapons the last time, after carrying two extra sets of war javelins. Luckily, his frequent trips to Malah's shop resulted in the purchase of several sets of cruel throwing spears, and a decent hurlbat of butchery. Hardly stepped off the waypoint in the Ancients' Way, knowing a long fight was ahead.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-ancientsway.jpg

Dark lancers, spike fiends, and tainted greeted Hardly. Not a bad draw, though the spike fiends can be difficult to spot, and the lancers move like they've each consumed three bottles of no-Doz. Thankfully, most of the bosses were not cold enchanted (the bane of Hardly). After a mostly uneventful journey, Hardly arrived at the summit, carrying a full pack and cube of throwing spears, axes, javelins, and fat purple pots.

Ah, I wish I had a shot or two of the battle. It raged all over the summit, with the ancient concentrating mostly on Hasaad. Korlic dropped first, leaving Madawc and Talic. Haseen was fed a steady diet of purple pots, as he tanked away. Madawc dropped next (that's right--who's the best thrower NOW?!), leaving Hardly with a aura enchanted (conviction), cold enchated Talic (yum). His regular whirlwinds made for some serious happy feet--and lots leaping (leap attack) to avoid the cold enchanted whirlwind. Haseen was having a hard time targeting Talic, as was Hardly. Things were starting to look a bit bleak, since Hardly ran out of pots, Haseen was down to less than 1/3 life, and spears were down to less than 20 per hand.

Hardly and Haseen decided a bit of mountain running was in order...mainly to help Haseen regain some health. After a few laps around the summit, Haseen and Hardly settled in, locked in on Talic, and poked/threw away. Hardly launched the last of his spears into Talic, but he still lived, with between an eighth and a quarter of his life left. Haseen proved his mettle once again, finishing off Talic with yet another poke from his battered lance. I think these shots tell the tale very well.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-ancients.jpg

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-noweapons.jpg

Yep. No pots, no usable weapons. Many rounds were bought for Haseen that evening. :P

Since Hardly had already cleared WSK1 and 2 in a previous game, he started on to Baal from the WSK2 waypoint. The first monster type spotted were poison throwing bone mages--no worry except for a need to run to town if Hardly gets hit--let's just say poison resistance is not exactly high. Next Hardly spots some lightning bugs, again, not too much of a problem, as long as you know how to find the sweet spot inbetween all the sparks. But of course, all is not well, as Hardly soon has packs of black souls firing lightning from all angles. Actually, the souls were not too much trouble, as taunt brings them close, where they are less likely to shoot gobs of lightning. Finally, Hardly spots the stairs, and heads to the next level of the keep. Around this time, Hardly found a fourth set of cruel throwing spears, so the pair crafted blood hurlbats were stashed for another pair of cruel throwing spears. Those would be his weapons for the rest of the evening.

On the third level of the keep, Hardly was greeted by teleporting, fire-shooting rascals/tricksters, which are more annoying than dangerous. However, he soon spotted scores of dumb knights, which meant that their ever dangerous handlers, the oblivion knights, would be right behind. The remainder of the level was spent herding the dumb knights away from their oblivion bosses, or teleporting back to town to wipe the IM curse off Haseen, or trying to quickly dispatch the OKs before they could lay down curses. The worst stretch I can remember was two OK boss packs with another pack of two OKs and their dumb cronies. Lots of happy feet, a few trips to town, and one dirt nap by Haseen, and the level cleared.

Hardly_Able stepped down to the Baal's Throne of Destuction. Slightly down the corridor from the first turn, he's greeted with a cold-enchanted boss pack of Frenzytaurs (Death Lords). Within a few seconds, Haseen takes a dirt nap and Hardly is on the run. It took a few minutes to string out the pack enought so that Hasaad could tank the remainder (including the boss) while Hardly launched spear after spear into the mob. After a minute or two, the mob was gone, and the entrance to the level secured. The rest of the Thone was no picnic: more Death Lords, vampires (Night Lords), and more dumb knights and their cursing oblivion knight handlers. The most notable of the remaining struggle to clear the Throne was in the southwest corner, which was populated with champion oblivion knights, a pack of frenzytaurs, and a vampire boss pack.

Finally, Hardly entered Baal's throne room, dispatched the few remaining vampires and knights, and prepared Haseen and himself for the onslought of the minions. Colenzo fell quickly, but Achmel's bunch presented some tricky positioning problems. Hardly had to find a way to lob spears at Achmel and his minions, while avoiding the slowing ice bolts of the mages. He was able to take out all but two before the mages put the freeze on, which was enought to gain the battlefield and win the day.

The remaining minions did not fall as easily. Bartuc, rang up aura enchanted (conviction), which resulted in Haseen taking his dirt nap five seconds after the spawn. Hardly let him rest for a bit, while taunting Bartuc's minions out of the throne room for their acupuncture treatments. Only after Bartuc lay dead did Hardly return to Harrogath to retreive his longtime companion. Ventar and his pack forced Hardly and Haseen out of the throne, but a few tactical maneuvers (aka running away) thinned the pack and allowed Hardly to control the battle. Finally, it was time for Lister, who run up lightning enchanted. Although a difficult fight, for once Lister's minions managed to string out enough to allow Hardly and Haseen to concentrate on one or two at a time. In normal, Hardly couldn't break up the pack, and the fight took considerably longer. That's not to say that Hardly wasn't pushed bact to the stairs, just that it only happened once :P.

On to Baal. Hardly leveled to 65 as Lister crumbled, so here are Hardly_Able's particulars entering the fight with Baal:

First, his best weapon, and stats shown before BO and his Haseen's might aura.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-stats1.jpg

Next, his actual in-battle stats, boosted by battle command, battle orders, and Haseen's might aura (actually took the shot after Baal, but none of the stats changed).

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-stats2.jpg

Hardly is wearing broken eth gloves and boots, a cracked circlet (haven't got a broken eth one yet, no armor, and is wielding cruel throwing spears. He's mostly stuffed with charms (which are allowed) to boost resistances and life. As you can see, he has added NO points to vitality, and sits just under 500 life with the spears (blood axes have life boost, so he WAS at about 600 life before switching to the spears exclusively).

And the battle rages on...

Baal was NOT cooperative. He kept tossing cold wedges and cloning--two things that Hardly could not handle. With no "half-freeze duration", or "cannot be frozen" gear, every cold wedge resulted in a ten or more second slowdown of his throwing. Hardly found a few sweet spots in the chamber, and one or two times actually had the opportunity to unload all of one pair of weapons into Baal. Most times, however, Baal moved, cloned, or sent a cold wedge that resulted in heavy pot consumption, or a leap out of harms way, with a regroup in Harrogath. After about 45 minutes of whittling away, Hardly could sense that Baal was about spent.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-baal.jpg

Baal ended up retreating a bit to the southeast, where one last spear caught him, and felled the mighty prime evil.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-baaldeath1.jpg

Like the reward in normal, Baal was kind enough to drop some nice gear--none of which was useful for Hardly.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-baalreward.jpg

Hardly made a few trips to town to sell most of the loot, accepted the congratulations of the denizens of Harrogath, and headed out with a new title.

http://sheridan.freewebpage.org/diablo/images/HA-nm-champion.jpg

Hardly will be training a bit more, but he will soon see you all in Hell

(to be continued)