Act 5: So Cold, Except for my Feet
Upon entering Harrogath I was given a nasty Scare by one of the NPC's, Nihlathak. I quickly left the town to help break the siege. The experience was very good in the bloody foothills, not only for me, but also for my merc, who would remain at my level for the majority of the act. At one point not far after the demon sprites, a group of five barbarians joined us in advancing. For a moment I thought I would get a wall to hide behind. These dreams were quickly shattered, much as the barbarians bodies were by cold shooting catapults. We proceeded, clearing only the packs necessary to advance to the command level of Shenk, the overseer we made good time as well. Shenk proved to be no real challenge. Shenk dropped probably the only item he really didn't need to, Sigons Greaves. I have nothing against these boots, they're very good, especially in tandem with the gloves. The problem is, my only real finds have all been boots. Again, this wouldn't be a problem if; A. you could wear boots on your head for example or B. I could wear one tread, one Hsaru�s and one Sigons. Of course, since you can't mix and mingle, not to mention the fact I don't have three feet I was forced to choose. Since, thanks to some new gear, my resists were pretty good already and the Anya would improve them soon, I elected to stay with the treads for the speed and small up to life.
Hazade and I proceeded into the Frigid Highlands in order to save the barbarians. We found them with little trouble, got the waypoint as well and proceeded on our way. I missed the Abadon, but did clear the other two outdoor optional areas of the act later. The Arreat platue proved to be a large annoyance. First of all, every time I got near a door crowds decided to meet me on the other side. Secondly, it became the first (and only) waypoint of the game I was unable to locate. Upon entering the crystalline passage a large joy dropped at my feet. A magical war sword. It was in fact usable and had life leech, which allowed my to ditch my FLAIL. I was only using the flail for the leech as well. Not more than two steps later a ring with a tad bit more life leech fell as well. Already having mana leech from an amulet I picked up in act two I was more than on my way to rescuing Anya. It got tricky in the frozen river though. Hazade managed to do that trick that only act 2 mercs can do, luring several packs of enemies around me while I was stuck in a zeal. Guzzling potions with two unique packs of abominations around me, Hazade, now without any leech, was getting pummeled as well.
Fortunately for him he leveled up with no more than a sliver of life. I finally ran out of potions for myself, with no end in sight. Again, as luck would have it I hit level 30 just then. Immediately I put a point in fanaticism and redemption, which became my 'potions' for the next few minutes. Eventually we made it to the end of the river and saved Anya. The scroll of resistances up my already good resistances to a point in which they were all very close to maximum.
I entered the red portal, did a pindle run (he dropped nothing of course) and continued on ward. Say what you will about the Halls of Anguish, Pain and Vaught, but they do have one very important thing in them, experience. I was just over level 33 when I found Nihlathak, this gave me a good amount of points in redemption, which was my way of fighting him. He ran out of corpses quite fast, then I moved in for the kill. His arctic blast got annoying for a while, but he had no other way to damage me so it wasn't a concern. As always, he went on a teleport frenzy before falling to the ground, dropping a rare. You would think, of course, for a single player game, class specific items would only fall for your class, right? Well, it didn't, but it was a wonderful barbarian helmet. I made a bunch of gold off of it and continued the act.
Nothing eventful happened until the ancients way, which is of course, when I found the Arreat Summit. Normally I would be about level 20 here, but since I wasn't getting rushed I was already level 33, very close to 34. Hazade and I took the ancients, myself opening up on Madawc while he fought off Korlic. I killed Madawc first, Hazade was getting double teamed by both Korlic and Talic at this point. I took Talic off of him and watched him finished Korlic quickly. Talic eventually went down as well. Our passage into the World stone Keep was granted. However, as always, I had to a look at the Arreat Summit, perhaps the best bit of artwork in the whole game. (I forgot to take a screenshot, I'll do it in nightmare) The journey to Baal was an easy one, I cleared a large majority of the way to him though.
The throne of destruction was not a friendly place to be though. While the normal enemies fell quickly, Baal's waves, specifically the last three, proved to be too much for poor Hazade. Bartuc the Bloody gave him his first death. I revived him thinking it was only because of the lightning. What a mistake, Venter the Unholy and company roasted Hazade at a cookout with their inferno attacks. I was able to take this wave with ease though. Now the biggest badass in the game, Lister the Tormentor. I watched the revived Hazade charge up and swing once, get stunned, knocked back and killed not long after. The Baal decrepifies forced me to retreat towards the entrance, trapping the minions of destruction into double filed lines in the hallways, a much easier fight than being stuck between them all. The normal ones went easy, Lister the Tormentor however kept kicking my ass around, after about three dozen potions he finally died, giving me what I had always wanted, 57 gold, a magical sash, a magical cap and two light mana potions. I went to town, repaired up and bought some potions, revived my merc too, for the final encounter with Baal.
We entered the World stone Chamber and ran up towards Baal. He was unable to get a curse on me with my leet speed thanks to vigor. Baal got pounded initially. After he was about 2/3's dead he started teleporting around to annoy me. Hazade got caught in a few frost V's and was a sitting duck for a pair of festering appendages. I finished Baal off by myself. Keeping consistent with his brothers, he dropped a large pile of crap for me to pick up. I decided I would go to nightmare immediately rather than leveling up, figuring that I'm emulating a first time player as much as possible.
end stats
Slayer SineNomine
Level 35
str 81 (80)
dex 86 (85)
vit 80
nrg 15
Life 318
Mana 56
FR 58
CR 73
LR 69
PR 75 (82)
Dmg 42-137
AR 1713
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