14-09-2004 09:50									#1
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I do not seem to be able to figure out to make a character that can kill the Ancient Barbs of Arreat Summit in Nightmare.

Last year I had a barb at level 59 at patch 1.09 and was stymied.

Today I have a level 61 Druid (wolf, no elemental spells) and I cruise through everything until I hit the summit.

My grizz was quick to run away, so fast I barely got in a swing before it was gone.

My plan was to send the bear into get their attention and come up behind in wolf mode and use fury to do some damage.

Ready to recast the bear and I have all slots filled with full rejuvs.

My side kick is an act III cold guy I have had all the way since then and is around my level.

I use Oak sage and carrion vine and have 4 ravens (+3 skill). I am maxed at Lycanth and WereWolf is close to it as well.

	14-09-2004 12:32									#2
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Are you playing 1.09 or 1.10?

If you're in 1.10, you simply will not be able to beat the Hell Ancients with a Druid unless you have godly equipment, and even then it'll be really hard.

	14-09-2004 20:44									#3
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It is 1.10. I remember now what I did in normal mode. I placed potions on the ground to replace the ones in my belt.

I got Talic to chase me.

I may need to get up to level 64 to make hitting them a bit easier as I understand they are levle 68.

	15-09-2004 05:42									#4
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Good luck. 1.10 is hell on game balance. Melee characters are severely underpowered. I'm going to guess that you will not ever be able to beat them by yourself with a Druid. This is no fault of your own, it's just the way that the 1.10 patch was designed.

	15-09-2004 05:45									#5
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I have a Diablo question. What game do you recommend as a replacement for it? Is NWN Diablo-esque?

	15-09-2004 06:10									#6
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Eh, kind of. I really didn't like NWN, but a couple of my friends loved it. The problem is that you can't really replay anything. When you're done, you're done.

World of Warcraft should be out in not too long, and that looks cool. Also, I've heard of a game called Guild Wars that's supposed to be similar with no monthly fee, but I still need to check out the info on it.

	15-09-2004 06:12									#7
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http://www.guildwars.com/

	15-09-2004 07:36									#8
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I beat 'em with an Amazon via the good ol' Summon Valkyrie, run away, shoot until Valkyrie screams (usually very soon, sometimes immediately), recast Valk & run.

Slow, but works. Course, not quite as much an option with melee characters, thanks to that whole instant death if the leap attack barbarian hits you. If you hear the "Huuu!," I guess you just have to run, and hope you weren't in the middle of an attack sequence.

	15-09-2004 08:09									#9
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quote: Originally posted by BustaMike Eh, kind of. I really didn't like NWN, but a couple of my friends loved it. The problem is that you can't really replay anything. When you're done, you're done.

That is completely and undeniably not the case. NWN is quite possibly the most replayable game that there is. There are hundreds upon hundreds of modules available for download from the net, not to mention multiplayer.

...and even if you only decide to play the out of the box modules, you can do so with several different characters and styles.

	15-09-2004 08:49									#10
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I let you know. I ran up to few levels to 63 and will go to 64 and see what happens.

If they (ancient barbs) get a roll with extra strong and speed, it will be too hard.

	15-09-2004 19:40									#11
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Ok it was a snap. I let the bear do all the work and stayed out of the fight. I never took a hit and only used rejuvs to refill my mana.

I summoned Oak sage and carrion vines and 5 ravens as well and keep them all up. The side kick chipped in a bit here and there with cold to slow them down.

I was level 64.

	15-09-2004 20:11									#12
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A a Barb I made sure I had loads of Full rejuvs and whirlwinded my way through them. I died a couple of times, but I got there in the end.

	15-09-2004 22:10									#13
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I have a barb ready to go to the summit in nightmare. I am not sure when I will get back to it.

Melee seems to be a tougher role in 1.10 and the worst thing to see in a level boss or super unique is extra fast.

	16-09-2004 05:20									#14
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this guys are hard to kill without help.

But I have no problem killing them on single player with tough characters such as druids (lycanthrope builds), barbarians, and paladins.

edit: that above post refers to 1.09. I've been playing Diablo a little recently, but still haven't gotten to the ancients. I mostly try to get them in multiplayer anyways. solo is no fun.

	16-09-2004 05:24									#15
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quote: Originally posted by vmxa1 I have a barb ready to go to the summit in nightmare. I am not sure when I will get back to it. Melee seems to be a tougher role in 1.10 and the worst thing to see in a level boss or super unique is extra fast.

I haven't noticed too much of a drop in melee in 1.10. I did play my werebear druid build recently in nightmare. I was only in act 1 though. I still haven't got him farther than that. He stomped on everything pretty good. Again, I play multiplayer, so if I do hit some kind of immune, my party can back me up usually. Also note. I did good without uber equipment. I very rarely find great epuipment. And I never have any to pass down. The main downside to playing multiplayer is I miss out on a lot of stuff (I"m not quick enough to get many items), unless the party is nice enough to give me stuff.

	16-09-2004 06:22									#16
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I went on to Hell Mode for a bit. All my resist levels are a big minus (most over -40), so it is a pain.

If I run into cold immune monster (uniques) it is vry dangerous for me. I need to get some items to at least get to 0.

	16-09-2004 10:35									#17
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Oh... you were fighting them on Nightmare? Have fun when you get the them on Hell, if you can make it that far. When I was talking about 1.10, I meant on Hell difficulty... the only real difficulty .

	16-09-2004 20:08									#18
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bah! what fun is that?

I prefer Nightmare difficulty myself. Just the right balance for my tastes. Normal is too easy. Hell is too annoying.

Only masochists prefer Hell difficulty.

	16-09-2004 21:22									#19
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I have noticed that melee chars did take a hit compared to magic chars in 1.10. Try out a Hammerdin. They are difficult to aim until you get it down but they do really good damage (my hammerdin does about 5-6K non elemental and can kill anything in any mode alone )

	17-09-2004 09:48									#20
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Trokair, the Hammerdin is by far the best overall build in 1.10. There simply is no comparison. BTW, 5-6k is nice, but it's possible to hit well over 10k with over 100 faster cast. Nothing survives.

Another great build is a poison javazon. Before I quit playing, I got my plague javalin to do over 60k poison damage. If I could have got those stupid runes to make bramble armor, I'm sure I could have hit well over 100k . Back it up with a good lightning fury and you own most everything.

	17-09-2004 10:26									#21
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damn you all! I'm tempted to start another hammerdin. I think I had one back in the 1.08 days. They then nerfed them. They are pretty cool. Like I said, I never can find the really cool faster cast equipment though. I rely mostly on solid character builds, as I never seem to find any good equipment.

So I prefer builds that rely less on equipment. A big plus of sorceress' is they rely mostly on skills than on equipment. I had a lightning sorc- but I wasn't happy with her.

	17-09-2004 11:10									#22
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Exactly what do you mean by hammerdin. I presume that is some form of a pally.

dissiden, I remember 1.09 nerfed poison and cut one of my characters damage in half. What nerfing do you refer to in this case?

	17-09-2004 20:03									#23
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I can't remember exactly. I think it was a nerf from the original version and the first major patch. Which might have been before 1.08 come to think of it. I think people realized hammers were overpowered and they became very popular. Then they nerfed them to make them balanced with other builds.

	18-09-2004 09:11									#24
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The original hammerdin nerf came when they made it so Concentration no longer adds to hammer damage, essentially making the build unplayable because your damage was cut to maybe 20% of what it was.

In 1.10, not only did they fix it so concentration works again, but they also made it so Blessed Hammer has synergies with other skills that also add to the damage. It's also good because it does pure magic damage and not elemental damage. Most everything is some kind of elemental immune to something and heavily resistant to other elements in 1.10, but next to nothing has magic resistance at all. Additionally, there are only 3 creatures in the game that are magic immune, and one of those you can hurt anyway because it's undead.

	19-09-2004 07:44									#25
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What exactly is a Stone Of Jordan? I have been lookin around and I do not find any picture of it and I don't even know if it is a jewel or what.

	19-09-2004 08:43									#26
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It's the 3rd unique ring.

+1 to all skills, increase maximum mana 25%, 1-25 lightning damage

It became basically the online currency because back in the original Diablo 2 if you have the first two unique rings in your inventory and you find another, it will always be the stone of jordan so they became fairly common. Then they got duped all to hell, because they were already starting to be currency, and that made it even more so.

They are decent equip for casters, but that's about it.

	19-09-2004 09:28									#27
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I thought they were part of a socket for a rare item reciepe?

	19-09-2004 14:49									#28
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quote: Originally posted by vmxa1 I thought they were part of a socket for a rare item reciepe?

Yep, Blizzard made those stupid recipes to try and get rid of the huge quantity of duped SoJs since the dupe check can't get them (something to do with old vs. new item code). You'd have to be an idiot to actually use one in the recipe if you're playing online.

	19-09-2004 20:46									#29
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I found the ring in the item list on DiabloII.net. It looks like if you have a good rare item that can be socketed, it may be worth doing, at least in SP.

The mana is nothing to a druid and plus one skill is not huge, since Ihave maxed by druid stuff. A socketed rare, could be very strong.

Anyway, it is moot as I don't have one.