I had such a fine time after picking up cool stuff in yesterday's free gear game that I thought I'd let y'all know what became of the things once I got my greedy mitts on them.
The last time I played pericat, my USWest bowazon, I spent one full afternoon doing nothing but gambling for long war bows in Act III. She was about to go into Travincal, and her firepower was abysmal. At level 26 or so, long war bows only just started showing up in the gambling window, and not terribly often either, so it was a grim session.
After all was said and done, she ended up with a passable rare and a decent blue (5-40 damage), and took both across the Causeway, with Telash the Glacial Spiking Wonder trotting at her heels. Telash took his lumps like a good little bubbleboy and after a strenuous fight with the Council they entered the Durance and found their way to the 2nd level waypoint, where I stopped for the time being.
pericat was by then 27, nearly 28. All those runs through Kurast for gambling fodder had actually netted her some experience. :-) Her biggest problem was leeching enough mana back during any exchange to support using an attack more powerful than a normal arrow. All the mana-leeching, mana-regen gear I could find or cobble together was not enough, because she simply couldn't deal the damage in big enough chunks. And with the emphasis on leeching and regen, her resists sucked. I figured what she had would see her through the rest of the Durance and could only hope for better things in Hell.
Then came Christmas. pericat popped into the Free Gear game yesterday to see what might be available. The game had just crashed and been reborn, though much was lost. "All the good stuff," someone said, but if what I saw covering the ground in the second game was the lesser stuff, the good stuff must have been fine indeed.
pericat wandered around, looking at amulets and rings mostly. She'd spotted the unique edge bow, Skystrike, and noticed it would be usable at her next level-up, and that it would provide considerably more damage than she currently had. There was a Goldwrap that she couldn't pass up, and a +1 to Amazon Skills amulet and a couple other items that looked bloody useful and worth a trial. She left behind an Iratha's Cord which I believe is post-1.09, but am not certain (my apologies if it isn't and that makes a difference) and some nice rings.
Someone else wanted in the game, so I buggered off to level up so she could play with the new bow.
Back to Durance level 2, and an uneventful clearing of it and level 1, to warm up. The IAS from Goldwrap gave her a most welcome boost. Found the doorway to Travincal, and on a whim, she popped through it and right into Toorc Icefist's face. This was a tactical error, two hydras were trained on her before the graphics finished loading, so back down and gosh, didn't this belt used to have potions? Refill belt and try again, thinking maybe the graphics will be pre-loaded and this might help.
It did, a very little bit, but not enough, so retreat and regroup and move on to the real business of the day. Silly idea, that was, entering Travincal via Durance. They jogged off to the entry to level 3, where Bremm and Friends awaited them. Telash did not die, nor did pericat, and after carefully scouting and clearing the lower section, they woke up Mephisto. Well, pericat woke up Mephisto—Telash chose that particular moment to do his best imitation of a Valkyrie and basely hid in Maffer's room, counting his toes.
pericat ran to the other side of the lava canal and peppered Meph with ice arrows while slurping blue and purple potions. This kept him much too chilly to toss more than a bare minimum of nasty things at her, and as he went down, pericat leveled to 28 and Telash wandered, ambled really, out the door to see what all the noise had been. Meph dropped a rare set of balanced axes and a rare hatchet hands, both of which had the dullest mods I'd seen in a long time, and off we went to Act IV, putting her skill point into Strafe in hopes she could now stand to use it without going high and dry on mana.
Skystrike may not be much regarded in trading channels, or common as dirt in NM/Hell games, but the difference it makes for pericat is enormous. Her ice arrow damage, for instance, went from 47-101 to 137-416. Most of that jump is due to the bow's own 1-250 lightning damage, which is not something one can count on really, but as the listed damage of the bow before the lightning is added is something like 40-70, that alone was a tremendous improvement. Add 30% IAS, and she cleared the first two areas of Hell in no time. Izual went down faster than Mephisto, and that's never happened with a character of mine (he dropped 4000 gold and a blue axe). I was so chuffed, she cleared half the City and was partway through the RoF before I remembered I should talk to Tyrael about the two skill points.
The Abyss Knights in the River area gave her the first serious trouble she'd had in Act IV. Basically, her resists still sucked, and when they'd clusterbomb her from offscreen she had to drink fast to stay in the game. Back to the gambling table.
Juggling helm, boots and gloves she was finally (some 500,000 gold later) able to get cold and lightning res up to 40-ish, and fire to 30-ish. Not great, but better than before. In between gambling spells, she cleared the rest of the RoF to the waypoint, with the exception of Hephaisto's arm. Things had been going so well, she took that on, luring him out and pasting him with ice. He got in a couple of swipes, but keeled over properly. She picked up some nice gems (including a perfect Topaz) when she smashed the soulstone, not to mention a sure-nough Eld rune (ohboy).
Then on to the Chaos Sanctuary, where Stranglers and Pit Lords (?) were easy fodder and OKs were painful. Despite the OKs, she cleared the CS and started popping Seals. Lord de Seis was first, then the Infector and last Whatshisname, the extra fast Pit Lord. Of them all, only de Seis' band were any trouble.
Any mana potions she found and didn't need right then had gone to cubing rejuvs, so she loaded up with 2 rows of little ones and 2 rows of full, then hit the last Seal. Diablo would not come down to play until she forced the matter, and then he was Right There, looming over her like a bad mannered wolfhound. Telash was but a crumpled smear on the floor, but that's to be expected.Ice, ice and more ice. Drink and ice. He was between her and her portal, dammit, so forget trying anything fancy, she'd die if she let up her attack. With one full rejuv left in her belt, he went down. He dropped a rare broad sword, the proceeds of which she used to resurrect Telash, having used up her gold in working for better resists. Next stop: Harrogath, where they cleared half the Foothills before pericat finally leveled to 29 and at that point I called it a day.
So, many, many thanks to all the people who donate stuff to the mules, and the people who manage them.
Someone (my buddy ald, not to name names or anything) commented after I posted this account to AGD that Telash doing a Brave Sir Robin impersonation during the Mephisto battle was showing real smarts on his part, as Meph + merc = one-hit kill. My response (notable only for its virtue in catching pericat up to the present moment):
ahem pericat didn't hire him to suddenly grow a brain cell right when she's woken an end-act boss, and she told him as much today after plowing through Shenk and the FH to round up all the POWs. Pretty much about when she fired his bubbly self in favour of Heremod, Tank.
She and Heremod then wandered through the Arreat Plateau and down into the passage and the Frozen River, where they had a few close calls before rescuing Anya.
I tell you, it's a good thing Malah comes up with that resistance scroll, cos whatever Anya tosses down is sure to leave most adventurers stupified with puzzlement. Anya's reward is the sound of one hand clapping, imho.
pericat got some lovely maiden javs. I think she has a point in Jab, I'm not sure.
On the bright side, several days later pericat was the recipient of unprecedented generosity when Orchid64 popped up like a fairy godmother of yore and laid upon her the unique Rune Bow, Magewrath. pericat is currently engaged in leveling up as fast as she can so as to be worthy of its charms.