[1.05b] Countess Aeclipsia [Level 32 | Act 2 NM | Hardcore Amazon]

[Erayz]

Hello fellow time travellers,

I haven't been playing D2 much recently, but I've been wanting to try an Amazon in 1.05b HC as a challenge and try to see if the Amazon in this patch is as underpowered as I've been reading everywhere. I'm trying to take it at a slower pace.

My long term goal, if I make it this far, is to farm Hell CS and hope to find awesome rares. Realistically, I'll be as unlucky as ever with my drops and get, at best 2-pointers rares. Even more realistically, I might die on NM or Hell Duriel. Travincal, Chaos Sanctuary, Durance of Hate are also likely area where Aeclipsia will meet her demise.

The build I'm going for is a typical multishot + guided arrow, using Valkyrie as a meat shield.

So far, I made it to level 22, managed to beat Duriel on Normal fairly easily. No real challenge so far.

No real notable drops so far. As usual, I'm going for Life + Resists on most of my gear slots while questing. I try to get at least one source of Life Stolen and Mana Stolen. Keeping my Multiple Shot level low for now, because my physical damage is so low (9-49 on screen) that I cannot nearly leech enough mana to sustain Multiple Shot, and putting more points in it will increase the mana cost.

My stats as of now are like so, still 0 lightning resist, which will shortly be a problem in Act 3.

Spoiler

Also attached are some screenshots of uniques and set items I found along the way. Interestingly, I found Tancreds Boots very early, and they have a level 20 requirement. I remember finding them in the Shareware version as well once. And also dropped a Super Mana potion during Act 1 normal, which I found to be odd.

I also found Lance of Yaggai, but forgot to screenshot it. Like most uniques/sets of this version it has very bad stats.

 

[fearedbliss]

Welcome to 1.05b. You are gonna have a hell of an experience. And yea, big pots drop on early acts in prelod . If you have a Barb with Find Potion, you can relatively easily farm Full Rejuvs pretty consistently in A3 and A4.

 

[Erayz]

Giving an update here, just before facing Duriel, in case Aeclipsia gets slain.

So, Aeclipsia reached level 32. Farmed Normal Chaos Sanctuary until level 30.

Now in A2 NM, my damage output is starting to be low, and it seems the way drop tables are made in 1.05b, I cannot find another Long War Bow before Act 4, so upgrades are pretty tough to come by. I haven't found any rare bow in NM yet. I could gamble, but Long War Bow are too expensive for the low chance of getting anything better. I'll have to wait until I find a decent rare Exceptional.

For now, I'm using a bow I found just before Chaos Sanctuary (see attached screenshots), and found a few rare rings that I want to use eventually, but cannot for now because it would mean losing lots of Mana leech, or Fire Resist from my current rings.

Edit: Tried Duriel. to make it safe-ish, I hired a merc (lol), cast a Decoy in front of Duriel and summoned a Vakyrie. All three of them got one shotted almost immediately. I had just enough time to fire about 4 arrows. Note that the Valkyrie is level 3, and has more HP than me (even though I have 65 Vitality and have a total of +176 life from my gear for a grand total of 443 hp). Meaning Duriel will probably one-shot me as well. Unless Act Bosses have extra damage vs summons and merc?

Anyhow, I loaded up my 1.05 SC Barb to test how much damage Duriel can deal on NM. Sure enough, some hits were over 400 hp. Not sure how Aeclipsia will progress more now.